


Rider's Return

by andipxndy



Series: The Soldier & The Spy [2]
Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz, NCIS
Genre: Gen, Post-Scorpia Rising, Season/Series 09, originally posted on ff.net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-01-10 06:13:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 93,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12292998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andipxndy/pseuds/andipxndy
Summary: One bullet. One dead. But Alex Rider wasn't the target. What happens when Alex witnesses the murder of a Petty Officer, and ex-SCORPIA assassins kidnap him for that rather than their corporation? Set in 'The Gibbs Project' universe. After Scorpia Rising. [Set in Season 9-10 gap/2012 | Post-Scorpia Rising]





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted from Fanfiction.net (username: The Needless Lobsters)  
> Starting post date for the original: 18/03/2012  
> Starting post date for the rewrite: 07/10/2017
> 
> Hey, guys! So, this is a rewrite/edit of _Rider's Return_ , which I wrote a while back (you can find the original on fanfiction.net). The reason for the rewrite is because of my rewrite of the prequel, _The Gibbs Project_ \- rewriting that meant that some of the characters in this were fairly inaccurately written, so I wanted to fix that. Of course, that meant that some of the plotline may also change so... instead of just editing it, I thought it would be a good idea to rewrite some of the chapters as well.
> 
> To those of you who noticed the tags, you would've seen that this is set in Season 9. I've done that mainly so that I can keep track of the timeline, otherwise my mind gets really muddled up. You guys can use it as well as a timeline marker, but just know it's more for my piece of mind than yours, mainly... haha...
> 
> Anyway, thanks to all of you who've decided to read this story! I actually look forward to going through this story again. I hope this one is better written (both character-wise and plot-wise) than the original, and I hope you guys all enjoy this fic!

He looked over his shoulder as he sprinted down at alleyway. Were they still chasing him? The echoing sound of pounding footsteps gave him his answer. He mentally groaned.

They were still after him.

He  _had_  to lose them.

He tried to sprint faster down the alleyway, only to hear the footsteps behind him speed up as well. He took faster and deeper breaths to get more oxygen into his lungs and to his muscles, so that he could push himself harder. So that he could get away faster. He could feel his muscles tiring and weakening, but he pushed himself on. He could see the end of the alleyway.  _If only I could…_

His train of thought was stopped suddenly when he heard a bang and felt the ground beside him crack and explode. He nearly fell to the side.  _Bullets, great,_  he thought as he continued to run on. The next set of bullets landed closer to his feet, almost catching him on the heel. He nearly cried with relief when he ran out of the alleyway into an open street… right into the rain. He'd forgotten about how hard it had been pouring when he'd entered the alleyway.

The rain would hide any tears anyway.

His eyes searched frantically for somewhere to hide as he resumed his sprint and headed down the street. He knew they wouldn't shoot when there were innocents around that could alert the police, so hiding in the crowd wasn't that hard to do… if there was a crowd.

Everyone had left the usually busy shopping area already to get home to their families, so there was barely anyone there – only the few employees leaving work late milled around, heading to their cars or walking home in the rain. He could easily get shot and barely anyone would look over, let alone realise what had happened.

He spotted another alleyway on the same side of the street, just a few blocks down. If only he could get there in time…

He sped up as he neared the alleyway. His chasers would be out any minute.

He leapt into the small alleyway, diving to hide himself behind a large trash can, and took slow, deep breaths to calm himself. He hoped they wouldn't find him…

Upon hearing the sound of footsteps, he held his breath – it was painful, but he did it. The footsteps neared the alleyway entrance before there was a shout. A moment of hesitation, then the footsteps retreated slowly, before disappearing altogether.

He gave a huge sigh of relief before getting up and walking cautiously out of the alleyway. He looked around to make sure his pursuers were actually gone before pulling the hood up on his hoodie; only to hide his face, and not to cover his already soaked hair.

Now to find shelter.

* * *

Petty Officer Peter Marks opened his fridge to find it, yet again, completely empty (save for a carton of milk, maybe – if it wasn't out of date). He sighed. "I really have to go food shopping this week," he grumbled, more at himself than anything else in the room.

The Petty Officer was around twenty-eight years old, of average height, with close-cropped red hair and bright blue eyes, and had a square jaw that gave him what some considered to be handsome features. At that moment he was wearing an old Harvard sweatshirt with a pair of grey jogging bottoms. The Harvard sweatshirt wasn't his – it was a 'hand-me-down' from his older brother who worked as an attorney, up in Boston.

Peter picked up a small Chinese menu from a counter to his right before walking into the living room of his home and picking up the house phone from its stand. He dialled the number at the top of the menu.

" _Hello, Spring Garden Chinese, how can I help you?_ " a man with a slight Chinese accent answered on the other line.

"Hi, I'd like to order some Chinese?"

" _Of course. May I take your order?_ "

Peter looked down at the menu. "Yeah, I'll have some barbecue roast pork…"

" _How many portions?_ "

"Two please." His eyes continued to scan through the menu, looking for other items he might like. "And… some spring rolls – two portions."

There was some hesitation on the other line as the man continued to note down Peter's order. " _Ok. Anything else?_ "

"Uh, can I also have one portion of Chicken Chow Mein and…" Peter paused when he heard a knock at the front door.

The sudden abruption wasn't something the man on the other line expected. " _Anything else, sir?_ " he prompted.

Peter ignored the voice on the line and made his way slowly towards the front door, grabbing his gun from its holster on a table by it, just in case it was some murderer. No one would come to his house at this time of night for a good reason; especially as he usually lived in Quantico and this was his spare house when he needed to get away from it all.

" _Sir?_ "

Peter placed the phone down on the table by the door before clicking off the safety slowly, his finger ready on the trigger if need be.  _Should I just shoot through the glass or look at who it is and then shoot?_  He placed his hand on the doorknob carefully, taking a deep breath, before suddenly twisting it and pulling the door open, pointing the gun at whoever stood there.

The person stood in front of him froze, almost jumping back at the sudden appearance of the gun aimed at them. "All you could've said was that I'm not wanted here."

Peter stared at the person in something akin to shock.

A teenage boy stood on his front porch, soaked to the bone, with a strong jaw line and handsome features. He had deep brown eyes and a tall, muscular figure – he was probably around 5 feet 10 inches tall, give or take a couple of inches. He wore a dark blue hoodie with the hood up so that his hair wasn't visible, and a pair of dark jeans with a pair of Nike trainers. That wasn't what unnerved him, though. The features were frighteningly familiar to Peter, like he'd seen him a couple of times before…

The teenage boy pulled back the hood he was wearing, revealing a mop of fair hair that hung down to his ears with his fringe in his eyes, and Peter nearly gasped. He knew where he'd seen the boy before.

"A…Alex? Alex Rider?"

Alex sent the man the slightest of smiles, his lips quirking up a little to one side. "I see you still remember me, then."

Peter clicked the safety on and blinked at the boy for a few moments, before remembering what he'd been doing before the teen arrived and picking up the phone. "Uh, that'll be all, thanks," he finally answered.

" _Ok. Your delivery should arrive in about half an hour to an hour, sir._ "

Peter gave some sort of awkward smile. "Thank you." He hadn't bothered about telling them his address – he'd phoned the place so many times (never with the same order, mind you), they must've remembered it. He ended the call and turned to Alex, who was still standing outside the door, hands firmly in his pockets, soaking in the rain.

"Well…"

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" Alex asked somewhat cheekily, shivering a little from the cold, wet weather. He was used to this back in England, he supposed, but in the U.S.? It was usually a little warmer here, wasn't it?

Peter couldn't help but smile a proper smile. The boy's behaviour, no matter how cheeky, was pretty amusing, after all. "Sure. You need to get out of the rain, anyway." He stepped to the side as the boy walked into his home, leaving a trail of water behind him.

Alex eyes darted from left to right as he looked around the place. "Nice place you have here," he complimented casually.

Peter shut the door and followed Alex into the living room. "Thanks. It's all I could afford, really."

The blonde, soggy teen stood in the middle of the living room. "Are you going to put the gun down, then?"

Peter chuckled lightly at Alex's comment as he placed the gun on the coffee table. "You must be freezing, Rider," he noted aloud as he noticed Alex shivering a little as he observed the room. "I'll get you some clothes."

"I'm fine… really…" Alex tried to convince the Petty Officer, sounding fairly weak.

The older man rolled his eyes. " _Sure_  you are." Peter left the room and headed upstairs to fetch Alex some clothes.

As soon as Peter had left the room, Alex shuffled towards the window that overlooked the street in front of the house. It was dark outside, making it hard for him to see anything properly out there. Yes, he could still see outlines of people walking out on the street, but it was too dark to confirm any of them as his pursuers, even if they were still there.

He sighed and moved away from the window, knowing that if he stayed there any longer his pursuers (if they were actually there) could shoot him. That was, if they'd followed him here. And chances were, even though he'd lost them, they would've found a way to track him.

"Here we go," Peter said as he re-entered the living room, carrying what looked like a blue t-shirt with a pair of loose jogging bottoms. He'd also brought down a pair of socks and one of his old hoodies. He handed the pile to Alex, who took them gratefully.

"Thanks." The teen looked through the pile of clothes in his arms, his eyebrows rising. "This many clothes?"

Peter chuckled. "You looked cold when you were standing at the door. Be grateful."

Alex gave a single nod. "Yes sir."

Peter smiled and gestured out to the corridor. "Bathroom's the first door on the left, Alex."

Alex nodded again before leaving the room to head off and change. Just as the boy left the room, Peter heard the doorbell ring. He walked out to the front door and opened it, expecting it to be the Chinese delivery guy, but he frowned when he instead saw a short blonde woman standing at his door.

"Uh… hi?" Peter asked.

The woman appeared to be looking around frantically, but even Peter could sense that there was some sort of lack in emotion in her movements. "Hello," she started gently, "I am looking for my son?" the woman said.

Peter frowned deeply at that, warning bells almost immediately going off. "Sorry, I haven't seen any little kids around here…"

"He's not little," she corrected, before going on to explain, "he's about fifteen years old, with fair hair and brown eyes. Not too tall, but… about average, his father usually says."

Peter looked slightly taken aback for a moment, the warning bells just ringing louder in his head at that. "Uh, sorry. Not seen anyone around here like that. Try next door." Before the woman could try talking to him anymore, he shut the door in her face.

"That the delivery guy?" Alex called out to Peter as he walked out of the bathroom wearing the dry clothes Peter had provided. All of them fit almost perfectly, maybe a little on the baggy side, apart from the hoodie which was about two sizes too big. To Alex, however, it felt snug. With the extra long sleeves, he almost felt like a little child again.

Peter turned towards the teen and shook his head in response to his question. "No." Folding his arms (and looking fairly intimidating as he did so), Peter gestured back towards the living room. "Alex, come and sit down. I need to talk to you."

Alex frowned and followed Peter into the living area, sitting down on the sofa so that he was facing the window. Peter sat and faced him on the sofa, instead facing away from the window. There was a short silence before Peter spoke.

"Alex, why exactly are you here?" he asked.

The teen tensed. He should have known that this was coming. After all his months of spying, after all that time of forced employment, it only took one month of relaxing for him to finally drop his spying habits. He cursed inwardly. "Uh…"

"Alex…" Peter warned, his brows furrowing at Alex's reaction to his question, "I can still take my clothes back and kick you out of the house."

Alex sighed through his nose, pursing his lips. He didn't want to explain what was going on, why he was there, why he had come to Peter for help and a place to stay… but he supposed now he had to. After all, he was his guest now. Peter technically had a right to know. "Well…" he started.

But he never got to finish his explanation.

There was a small clink as something cut through the glass window, and Peter gasped sharply in pain, eyes wide, before slowly tilting and falling off the chair, landing with a thud on the floor. Alex moved to kneel beside the Petty Officer before he realised what he was doing, and he frowned before he noticed the blood pooling around his body, leaving blood stains on the teen's knees; it took him a moment longer to realise that the blood was actually coming from the man's back, leaking out at an almost steady pace. He looked up at the window quickly, trying to find what had caused the injury, and noticed the small glint of the sniper gun before turning his attention back to Peter. The Petty Officer had been shot. And now he was dying. He quickly turned the Petty Officer onto his front, pressing his hands down on the wound to try and stem the bleeding. He was so busy that even though he heard a second click, he didn't realise it was actually the click of an opening lock.

He didn't register the pursuer come into the house until it was too late.

It was the soft footsteps behind him that alerted him to an unwanted presence, and even though the man in front of him was dying, he turned to see who it was. Because he definitely didn't recall Peter mentioning anything about another person being in the house, nor had he heard another person in the house for the entirety of the few minutes he had been there. He got a glance at the pursuer's face, but he didn't get to study the person.

Nor did he get to save the Petty Officer's life.

Because before he could even comprehend what was happening, he was out cold.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! So, here I have the first chapter for you! This one definitely underwent a fair bit of editing, but I feel much better about it now (especially with the character edits).
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy it!

Gibbs took a deep breath and sighed into the pillow beneath his head. This was the first night in what felt like weeks that he was actually sleeping in his own bed – after much convincing from both the children (from reassurances that they would come straight to him if there was something wrong, to promises that they wouldn't sneak down to the basement and try to continue with the boat in his absence) he'd finally agreed to do it. The softness of the bed wasn't something he was used to, after sleeping on the couch for so long and staying up most nights in the basement, but the softness and comfort of the mattress definitely wasn't something he was opposed to.

Of course, that comfort was disturbed when he heard his cell phone begin to ring. The man sighed as he sat up in his bed, picking the phone up from the bedside table and flipping it open to answer it.

"Yeah, Gibbs?" he answered gruffly. There was a murmur on the other line, and he rubbed his face tiredly, holding back his sigh. "Yeah, I'll be there." Flipping the phone shut, he rose from the bed, beginning to move around the room to get ready for the day.

He didn't expect, upon opening his bedroom door, to see two pairs of green eyes staring at him – he'd almost forgotten that it was still the holidays, and they wouldn't be going back for at least a week. In fact, it almost startled him, though not as much as it startled the two children, who jumped back in alarm.

The man sighed. "Did you hear everything?"

The two glanced at each other, before nodding.

He pursed his lips, before making a decision.

"You two up for a day trip to the Navy Yard?"

* * *

Within an hour, Gibbs and both the kids had showered, dressed, and made their way to the Navy Yard, with Andrew and Jessica spending the day with Abby in her lab – or rather, Jessica was spending the day watching Abby and everything that went on in the lab, whilst Andrew spent his time texting Alice near-constantly, involved in a conversation about "classes" and "work" (when they hadn't even started school yet).

As soon as he felt they were comfortable, Gibbs made his way back up to the office, heading straight to his desk to grab his badge and gun. "Dead marine, let's go."

All three agents looked up, startled by Gibbs' appearance. Last they'd heard, he was coming in late.

"You're here bright and early, boss," Tony chirped as the three agents rushed to grab their bags, shoving paperwork to the side for another day. As Gibbs passed his desk, he turned and tossed the keys to Ziva, earning a groan from both males.

"How come she gets to drive?" Tony whined as the three followed Gibbs into the elevator. At the look Gibbs gave him, though, he pursed his lips shut.

Ziva smirked. "Well, it is clearly because we are in a rush… and I am the better driver out of the three of us."

A smirk grew on Gibbs' face as the elevator doors shut, the grey-haired man just imagining the incredulous looks McGee and Tony were giving Ziva behind him.

* * *

Arriving on the scene, all four agents put on their NCIS caps as they excited the car, Tony and McGee looking ever so slightly paler than they had before getting in the vehicle.

"I think I can taste my breakfast in my mouth," Tony muttered, shutting his car door behind him.

"That's probably because you didn't brush your teeth after eating," McGee responded, and Tony responded to that with a glare of his own.

The four agents proceeded towards the crime scene – a house with at least one broken window, an open door, and police tape wrapped around every possible entrance to prevent passers-by from entering without any permission. The house would've seemed almost pretty if it weren't for the fact that it was the scene of a murder.

Gibbs himself moved towards the person who seemed to be the lead police officer in this investigation, tipping his hat when she nodded in his direction. His three agents followed behind. "What've we got here, officer?"

The officer was young, most likely in her late twenties, with curly fair hair tied back into a ponytail beneath her police hat, and plain brown eyes. At Gibbs' question, she pulled a notepad from her pocket, her eyes scanning the information scribbled out on one of the pages.

"We have a dead marine in the living room of this house, at least one window broken but doors with no sign of forced entry," she explained. "Only witness seems to be the delivery guy, who's talking to one of my people right now. The rest of my officers are currently keeping an eye on the scene, but we hear it's your jurisdiction? Since the dead guy's a naval officer."

Gibbs gave a simple nod, which seemed to express both his thanks at the information provided and approval at the fact she's seemed to recognise who they were and the fact that this was their jurisdiction right away. He turned to McGee. "McGee."

"Yes boss?" the younger agent replied.

"Talk to that delivery guy over there," he ordered. "See what information you can get from him."

"Yes boss."

As McGee headed over to the delivery guy, Tony and Ziva followed Gibbs into the house, past the police tape (and flashing their badges to the officers standing guard as they passed them). As they entered the building, Gibbs turned briefly to look over at his agents. "DiNozzo, pictures; David, bag and tag. Go."

The two remaining agents moved off to do as they'd been told, Ziva handing Tony the camera she'd picked up from the car on her way out. As soon as they'd disappeared, Gibbs began to scan the room.

The front hall was averagely sized – not too wide, not too narrow, but just large enough for a couple of people to pass each other before it got too crowded – and the walls were painted a neutral cream colour to go with the brown wooden flooring. In fact, the hallway looked like that of any home, and relatively untouched until the archway heading into the lounge… other than the muddy footprints by the door. Muddy footprints that DiNozzo had quickly snapped a couple of photos of before heading further into the house. As soon as the living room was reached, though, it was more than clear that blood had been spilled on the beige carpet – so much so that it probably wouldn't come out unless the entire carpet was replaced. The dead Petty Officer lay on his side near the couch, surrounded in a pool of his own blood that had soaked into the carpet beneath, his eyes still open.

"What've you got?" Gibbs called out, hoping one of his agents could answer.

Tony was the one to answer. "Lots of samples, boss – blood samples, tissue samples, hair samples…"

Gibbs gave the agent a withering look.

Tony hurried to continue. "And it looks like the guy was sniped, boss." He pointed to the window he'd just taken a photo of – the window right beside the completely shattered one. Gibbs took a step closer and realised that the window actually had a small hole in it, cracks leading out from around it – and the hole was small enough for a bullet to fit through without problem. "It looks like our Petty Officer had enemies."

Gibbs looked out of the window, trying to get an idea of the trajectory the bullet had followed. His eyes landed on the roofs of houses just across the street. "DiNozzo, get McGee to question the residents across the street about any noise during the night."

Tony nodded and gave a simple, "Yes boss," before leaving the room.

It was just as Tony was leaving the room that Ducky entered, Palmer hot on his heels. "Ah, Jethro," he said to the agent as some form of greeting, "what have we got here?" He knelt beside the body, Palmer placing his bag down next to him to use. The Medical Examiner pulled a liver probe from the bag and pushed it into the dead man's body, waiting for a few moments for the readings to come up. "This man was killed… approximately twelve hours ago, Gibbs. Which would make it…" The man checked his watch.

"Twenty-one hundred hours," Gibbs answered, making him wonder how no one had reported this sooner.

Palmer leaned over and looked at where the bullet entered the body, his fingers moving around the wound. "It looks like the bullet went straight in, missing the ribs and going straight through the left lung to the heart." The man gave a small smile. "Gives a real meaning to the words 'shot in the back', huh?" He laughed nervously, until he caught Gibbs staring at him.

Clearing his throat, Ducky moved to save him. "What else do you notice, Mr Palmer?" he asked, giving him an expectant look.

The man's eyes scanned over the body, before his brows furrowed slightly. "There's an exit wound…"

"Meaning…?"

"There's a bullet around here somewhere."

Just as Palmer finished speaking, Ziva entered the room. "I have brought McGee's fingerprint scanner," she announced, ignoring the protests of "I gave it to you!" that came from Tony behind her. Kneeling down beside the body, she took a finger and pressed it to the screen.

"Petty Officer Peter Marks," she announced. "Naval officer on leave, it appears."

"We're also looking for a bullet round," Gibbs pointed out as he pushed himself to his feet, "so get looking."

The three agents began to search for the missing bullet as Palmer and Ducky continued to examine the body, until Tony hesitated near the three-seater sofa – the one the Petty Officer had been sitting on.

"Found the bullet," he announced, snapping a photo of a hole in the middle of the third couch cushion. Pulling on gloves, he picked up the blood-spattered cushion, his eyebrows rising when he realised the bullet had gone through the cushion and embedded itself in the couch structure itself.

Just as Tony began to pull out the bullet and put it into an evidence container, Ziva called out, "Gibbs, I have more footprints!"

The footprints led out of the lounge through to the kitchen of the home, leaving large dried blood prints in the shapes of boot soles. Tony scampered after Gibbs and Ziva as they followed the prints, taking photos of them as evidence.

The agent snorted quietly. "This guy must've had big feet," he commented casually.

"They are as big as yours, Tony," Ziva stated plainly, not even bothering to look back at the man.

Tony furrowed his brows at her. "What's your point?"

The look Gibbs gave them both quietened them immediately. There were a few seconds of silence before Tony bravely spoke up again.

"You know what I don't get? The fact that there are footprints in the house… but the Petty Officer was sniped," he pointed out.

Ziva's eyes widened at that. "There must be something else in the house," she suggested. "Something they were looking for. Or, perhaps they did not finish the job."

"Like a rookie?"

"No, more like… something extra?"

As Tony and Ziva threw their ideas back and forth, Gibbs noticed McGee walking into the house. "McGee, what did you get?" he called out to the agent as Ziva moved to exit the kitchen, saying something about looking around the rest of the house for more clues as to what the killer(s) had been looking for.

McGee pulled out his notepad from his back pocket. "Well, I spoke to the Chinese guy and the people across the street—" He stopped short when he noticed his fingerprint scanner lying on the couch. "Hey, Tony! Don't just leave that lying around! It's expensive equipment!"

Tony shrugged. "I gave it to Ziva."

"And I gave it to you!"

"McGee!" Gibbs snapped, trying to get the man back on topic. He didn't get why his agents were so distracted today…

"Right." The agent's eyes scanned the notepad in his hand. "The Chinese delivery guy said he arrived here at twenty-one thirty, bringing the Petty Officer's delivery, when he found the door to the house open. He walked into the house because no one was answering, and found the Petty Officer in the living room before calling 911." He flipped the page. "The neighbours across the street don't recall hearing or seeing anything strange… though one person said they saw someone knocking on the Petty Officer's door. They said they went to bed straight after that, though – they don't recall seeing or hearing anything strange." McGee looked up at Gibbs. "All of the people living here are families with young children, though, boss. Most of them were asleep before anything actually happened."

As McGee explained the situation to Gibbs, Ziva began to scan the corridor for more clues, this time heading further into the Petty Officer's home than the living room. That was when she noticed the smeared blood trail on the ground. "Gibbs!" she called out. "I have found more blood!" She continued to follow the trail of blood, her brows furrowing when it stopped at a cupboard beneath the stairs.

Knocking cautiously on the cupboard door, her brows furrowed even more when she didn't get a single response.

"What is it, Ziva?" Gibbs asked as he approached, Tony and McGee behind him.

Ziva gestured to the cupboard in front of her. "The blood trail led to this cupboard. The smearing pattern on the ground suggests that perhaps there is something, or some _one_ , in there."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose as he moved to pull his gun out of its holster, the other three agents doing the same. "What do you think's in there?"

"Perhaps a body."

He nodded, moving to place his hand on the door handle and stand with the other three agents on the other side of the door, so that they could keep an eye on whatever was in there (or whatever would come out of there). Glancing at the other three, he waited for them to be ready with their weapons before counting down in his head.

_One… two… THREE!_

Gibbs pulled the door open sharply, and the other three agents pointed their guns at whatever was in the closet… only to drop their guns slowly.

A boy, probably around the age of fifteen, looked as if he had been shoved into the cupboard carelessly, a trail of dried blood across his forehead from what looked like a shallow cut and a bruise right beside it. The boy's fair hair was messed up and stuck in clumps around his face, as if it had been wet and was still drying, and he was dressed in slightly oversized clothes, the material hanging loosely on his body. The fact that he looked as if he was sleeping told all four agents that the boy was unconscious, and probably had been for a while if everything that had happened there was any indication.

Ziva was the first to react, bending down and touching two fingers to the side of the boy's neck. "I have a pulse," she announced, before leaning forward and taking a closer look. "There seems to be a pin prick on the side of his neck, however. Perhaps he was tranquilised."

"I'll get Ducky," McGee said, moving off to call the ME from the living room, whilst Tony pulled out his phone to call an ambulance for the child.

Gibbs, despite how concerned he was for the boy, looked around the cupboard he had been shoved into. Other than the shelves being stacked with papers, files, books and whatnot, there didn't seem to be anything out of place. "It doesn't look as if he struggled when he was put in here."

"He must have been unconscious when he was put in here," Ziva concluded, taking her eyes off the boy and looking around the cupboard. Her brows furrowed. "That box does not seem to be in its correct place."

Gibbs followed her gaze and his eyes landed on a fallen box, partially open. Leaning over, he picked it up with gloved hands, looking it over. It didn't seem to be anything special… at least, it didn't until he opened the box and found a flash drive inside marked "CONFIDENTIAL". He pulled out the stick and held it up.

Ziva frowned as she looked up at it. "Why would the Petty Officer have a flash drive marked 'CONFIDENTIAL'?" she questioned.

Before Gibbs could give any sort of answer, McGee arrived with Ducky, who looked almost pitying at the boy in the cupboard.

"Oh, my poor lad," he sighed as he moved to get a closer look at the child. Ziva stood and moved out of the way, about to head back to the lounge when Gibbs stopped her and handed her the box, the flash drive back inside it.

"Bag this," he suggested. He glanced down at the boy who was being checked over by Ducky, before back at Ziva. "I have a feeling it's gonna come in useful."


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I hope you've all been good! First of all, I'd like to apologise for taking so long to update - uni life just got really hectic, so I haven't been able to write in... about a month? (Despite it being NaNoWriMo...) Anyway, because of deadlines and coursework and general life, I haven't been able to write as much recently. Which is why (and now I come to my second point), I've decided to write you guys a slightly longer than usual chapter to make up for it. I mean, you're all sticking by me and reading even though it's just a rewrite (that seems to be taking a while to update), and I'd like to thank you all for that.
> 
> Anyway, enough of the blabbering from me. A (slightly) longer chapter awaits you all, and thank you all so much for sticking by this (currently very short) rewrite and hopefully I'll get another chapter to you all soon!
> 
> Enjoy the chapter, guys!

Waking up from a deep sleep was… weird. You ended up being disoriented, confused, occasionally (or rather, more often than not) wanting to go back to sleep, to whatever dreams (or whatever dreamless darkness) you'd had. It simultaneously prepared you for the day and made you want to stay in bed, in the warmth that you'd spent the last good few hours in.

Alex… wasn't sure whether he felt like that.

Upon waking, the first thing he did wasn't open his eyes, or shift around. He went still for a good few moments, listening to everything around him and trying to gauge what kind of situation he was in. It smelt too clean, too cold to be someone's home, or even a hotel. Whatever bed he was lying on, the sheets felt stiff, kind of like they were industrially made for mass use. His body felt heavy and kind of… numb? As if he'd been lying still for so long that his limbs had forgotten what it felt like to actually be used. There was a slow throbbing in his head that seemed to beat along to a quiet, steady beeping he could hear in the background, making his eyelids feel heavy as he struggled to push them open.

As soon as he did push them open, however, he shut them tightly. The lights in whatever room he was in were bright –  _too_  bright. To the point where he even struggled to open his eyes properly without feeling like he was going blind.

And that's when it hit him.

The bright lights, the industrial-like bedding, the coldness, the overly-clean smell… there was only one place he could ever remember smelling like that, and it made his heart drop into his stomach.

He was in a hospital. Even the slow, steady beeping he could hear beside him made a lot more sense now – it was his own heartbeat he was hearing.

In fact, the only thing that smelt even remotely abnormal was the scent of strong coffee lingering in the air. Though… it was pretty strong coffee, he had to admit. He could practically smell the strength of it in the air, he was sure of it.

"I know you're awake."

Ah, so there definitely  _was_  someone in the room with him, probably drinking the coffee. Though, how he'd figured out that Alex was awake kind of baffled him. Rather than questioning that any further, though, he decided to try and open his eyes again, this time more than prepared for how blinding the light was going to be. Squinting, it took a bit more time than usual for his eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did, he took a look around.

He was, in fact, in a hospital room. The walls were bare and a greyish-blue colour, the floor seemed to be more of a green-blue colour, and in the room there only seemed to be a bed, a couple of cupboards, and some (not-so-soft looking) seating. It seemed like a plain old hospital room – something that, for some reason, pleasantly surprised him rather than make him worry for why exactly he was there. Or, at east, that thought was not at the forefront of his mind in that moment.

Head turning towards the seating, he focused on the origin of the voice that had spoken to him earlier.

The person sitting there was a man, probably in his fifties or later if his silvery-grey hair was any indication, with eyes that were an icy-blue. He was leaning forward in the seat, his elbows on his knees and a cup of what smelled like strong coffee in his hands. He seemed to sit up a little straighter when Alex locked eyes with him, but made no move to stand up or walk over to him, or do anything that seemed remotely threatening to Alex. Kind of comforting, but it still made the teen wary.

It took Alex a few moments, but he eventually realised the man was waiting for  _him_  to make the first move, and the teen furrowed his brows for a moment, closing his eyes (which actually kind of relieved the slowly throbbing headache he had right then) before opening them again and beginning to speak.

Except, all that came out was a dry croak.

That seemed to be all it took to make the man get up, setting his coffee down on the table beside him as he headed over to Alex. The teen almost thought the man was going to do something scary (he kind of looked intimidating… even if he wasn't trying), but then he realised that he seemed to be reaching out for something on the bedside table beside Alex – what Alex soon realised was a cup of water, complete with a straw. As soon as the straw was placed against his lips, Alex began to drink from the cup, not realising how thirsty he actually was until he'd had a few gulps.

Pulling himself away from the cup, he took a deep breath, trying to ignore the dull throbbing in his head… and the sudden unsettled feeling he was getting in his stomach. "Thanks," he managed to mutter out, his voice still fairly hoarse.

The man simply nodded, before reaching over and pressing a button beside the teen. Alex looked slightly confused at that – he knew it was the nurse's button, but he had no idea why the man had called for a nurse when he seemed perfectly fine.

His question was answered a minute later, when the nurse arrived and he felt his head begin to spin, his stomach lurching. The man seemed to realise what was happening before he did, and only just managed to slide what seemed to be some sort of cardboard or plastic bowl beneath Alex's mouth before he could retch all of the water he'd just had, along with bile, out onto the blankets and sheets covering him. The nurse rushed over as soon as she heard the noise, taking the bowl from the man's hand.

"Thank you, Special Agent Gibbs. I'll take it from here," she said, glancing up at the man briefly. He nodded, leaving the bowl and taking a step back as the nurse began to fuss over Alex. "Hello, young man. How are you feeling?"

Alex decided to let out a half-hearted mumble in response to her question.

In all honesty, he felt a bit crappy. He'd just woke up in some foreign hospital with a grey-haired man with a coffee, had a throbbing headache that was now more irritating than painful, and had just thrown up half a cup of water (luckily it was into a bowl instead of all over himself – that would've made him feel a million times worse, in all honesty). To top it off, he didn't know who he'd got there, or why he  _was_  there, but he somehow had a feeling that the man was going to explain it to him eventually.

The nurse patted his shoulder sympathetically, offering him a small smile. "Don't worry. Hopefully we'll be able to clear up your system soon, and you'll be out like you've never been here!"

Honestly, Alex wished he wasn't there anyway, but if that was what she was promising then he wasn't going to argue with her. Not that he felt okay enough to argue, but whatever.

Once the nurse was sure he was alright, and had made sure that he was sure he was alright, she checked over the different wires hooking him up to the various machines and the IV line in his arm, before patting him gently on the shoulder and leaving the room… though, not without issuing a warning to the grey-haired man again.

_Special Agent Gibbs…_

"How long have I been out…?" Alex finally managed to ask, his voice quiet. The two males had been sitting there in silence for a good few moments, and considering the man seemed to be in no hurry to speak, Alex decided he might as well take the first initiative. After all, he didn't really have much better to do.

"Here? A couple of hours. Overall? We're guessing since about twenty-one hundred yesterday."

The man had a gruff sound to his voice, which (in Alex's opinion) matched his gruff demeanour pretty well. That and… he seemed to be talking in a different way. Like… military speak instead of the usual. It set a bad feeling in Alex's stomach (something to do with being recruited by spy organisations against your will…), but he pushed past it.

"Are you military…?" he asked, and then realised his mistake. This man was in civilian clothes, so if anything he was either off-duty or ex-military, and the grey in his hair gave him the feeling it was more the latter than the former.

The man's lips quirked up slightly into what Alex assumed to be a smile. "Used to be a Marine," he answered simply, and suddenly the coffee made sense to Alex. From what he could remember, one of Sabina's neighbours was a Marine (and his son was in the Navy too – serving their country seemed to run in the family), and he liked his coffee strong – so strong that whenever the window was opened in Alex's room, he could smell the strong coffee wafting up from their kitchen. Maybe it was a marine thing.

"Did you retire?"

The single eyebrow the man gave him made the teen want to take back the question almost immediately. Of course he'd retired. He wouldn't say he was an ex-marine if he'd been dishonourably discharged. Maybe he should head back to his previous line of thought.

"Did you bring me here?"

The man gave some sort of shrug. "Technically, one of my agents escorted you here."

_Agents?_  That confused Alex more. This man didn't seem like the spy type, yet he had agents? This was… really weird. "Why… why did they have to escort me here…?"

"We found you on our crime scene."

_Oh damn, they're_ _ **federal**_ _agents_.

Alex really hoped his face didn't give away the slight feeling of panic he could feel rising. Why was he at a crime scene? What had he gotten caught doing  _now_? Had they sent him out again and left him when he'd wound up in trouble? Sure, they'd promised to let him go, but… considering he couldn't actually remember anything that had happened…

Wait… he couldn't remember…

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, the door opened, and a redheaded doctor walked into the room. Smiling slightly at Alex, she gave the man sitting in the room a slight nod. "Special Agent Gibbs," she greeted, smiling a bit more at the hand he raised in greeting. She then turned to focus on him on the bed.

"Now…" She approached the bed, flipping open the chart in her arms and scanning her eyes over the first page. "Alex?" She looked up from the page to see whether he had responded. The fact that he appeared to be listening to her attentively was enough of a cue to continue. "My name's Doctor Martins, and I'll be your doctor during your stay." The moved towards the side of the bed opposite Gibbs. "How are you feeling?"

Alex was feeling a lot of things. Tired. Hungry. Thirsty. Nauseous. Annoyed with the fact that he'd ended up in hospital and he had no idea how.

In the end, though, he decided to give the doctor a slight shrug. "Not great…" he muttered in response to her question, looking down at the blankets in front of him.

She nodded before moving towards the various machines he was hooked up to, checking all of his vitals. "Your system seems to recovering adequately from the drug overdose," she commented, turning to the boy on the bed with a slight smile. "If you haven't been suffering any side effects, we should be able to discharge you within the next day or two into NCIS's care." She gave him a questioning look, as if asking the question without speaking.

Alex looked down at the blankets in front of him, his fingers beginning to fiddle with them. "I, uh… I kind of felt… a bit nauseous…?" he mumbled, though he didn't sound particularly sure of himself. The doctor nodded, noting this down.

"Unfortunately, that is to be expected as one of the side effects of drug overdose, but hopefully you'll recover from it soon," she explained, before looking down at the pad in front of her. "Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and I'd like you to answer them to the best of your ability. Is that alright with you?"

The teen hesitated for a moment, before finally nodding, looking up at the doctor.

"What's your name?"

"Alex."

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"When is your date of birth?"

"Thirteenth of February*."

The doctor scribbled the information down as he responded to her questions. "Place of birth?"

"East London."

The doctor's eyebrows rose at that. The boy wasn't even a native? Now that he'd mentioned it… she hadn't quite been able to place his accent. It was more of a mix than anything.

"Can you tell me anything about your family?" she asked the boy. Noticing how his face paled, she quickly went on to amend what she'd said. "If you don't want to tell me anything, that's fine! It's just best that we know for your treatment, and in case you have any adverse side effects to anything."

Alex quickly shook his head, focusing intently on the blanket in front of him.

After waiting a little while, the doctor realised that Alex definitely wasn't going to answer that question, so she moved on to the next one. "Do you remember how you got in this situation?"

At that question, Alex looked more confused than anything. "Uh…" His brows furrowed deeply as he tried to think… but nothing was coming to mind. He was blank. It wasn't even as if he was trying to avoid it – he was  _trying_  to remember, but there was nothing. His mind was  _blank_.

The doctor looked concerned for a few moments, before deciding to take a different approach to the situation. "What's the last thing you remember, Alex?"

That made him hesitate. He… he could remember something, at least. "I… I was hanging out with someone," he finally answered.

The doctor nodded encouragingly. "Do you remember who?"

He pursed his lips. "My… foster sister."

If either of the adults in the room were surprised, they certainly didn't show it. The doctor simply noted this down. "And what day was it when you two were hanging out?"

"Tuesday." He furrowed his brow as he looked between the two adults. "Wait… it  _is_  Tuesday today… right?"

The two adults shared a look. "Special Agent Gibbs, could I have a word with you outside for a moment?"

The older man stood, glancing over at Alex as he set his coffee down on the bedside table. "I'll be right back," he reassured the teen, before following the doctor outside.

Alex pursed his lips as he watched the two leave the room, knowing something was wrong. He had to hear what the two of them were talking about.

Well… there was only one way to find out…

* * *

Doctor Martins gently closed the door behind the two of them, before turning to face Gibbs, who (as old or wise as he seemed) was alert and ready for any information she might have for him. Which she was really grateful for, in all honesty.

Either way, she struggled a little with how to start off the conversation (only just a resident, she still wasn't a huge fan of the whole "telling the responsible adult" part). "Special Agent Gibbs… I hear you found Alex at a crime scene?" she asked, trying to confirm details she had been given. At the man's nod of affirmation, she continued. "Well, following our recent conversation… I have reason to believe that he may have some form of short-term memory loss… possibly amnesia."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose. "Amnesia?"

"It's only a possibility," she rushed to answer, "but that also means there is a chance he does not remember anything that happened before he became unconscious, and may never recover those memories."

Gibbs ran a slow hand over his face, sighing. The boy was one of the few leads on this case, if he had been there at the time of the murder, so for him to not remember anything about what happened… anything about how the Petty Officer had died, or who had killed him… that would leave them at a possible dead end if they couldn't find anything else at the crime scene.

"We do, however, know the cause for it, and so we can suggest some further treatment after some more tests," she explained. "He has suffered some head trauma, and despite carrying out an MRI whilst he was out I'd like to carry out another now that he's awake." She began to flip through the chart in her hands. "I'd also like to mention that I found some faded bruises on his body when we brought him in… mainly around his torso." She looked up at Gibbs. "And a bullet wound."

Gibbs' eyes narrowed at that. Alex had seemed like a pleasant enough (although reserved and quiet) boy from what little he'd spoken to him, but he had bruises? And bullet wounds? "Are you going to put security on him?"

"From my estimations, the bullet wound is at least a year old, so no. Not now, at least." She closed the chart. "I am, however, more than willing to release him to you as soon as we deem him well enough to be discharged. There's something about him that doesn't seem right, and if he was found at a crime scene where someone had been killed, I have a feeling he would be a part of it – of not one of the causes, then at least one of the victims."

"What makes you think he would be one of the causes?"  _You're a doctor and should be doing your job_ , he wanted to add, though the fact that it was conveyed in his eyes was more than enough, honestly.

Doctor Martins opened her mouth to talk (possibly to defend her own opinions) when an alarm suddenly went off, and nurses began to rush towards the room they were standing outside.

Alex's room.

Gibbs opened the door quickly, both of them racing in to see what had happened… only to find Alex standing by the end of the bed, holding onto the pole carrying the fluid that was currently being used to flush out whatever was in his system.

In his movement, one of the wires had come loose and was no longer tracking his pulse, making it seem as if he was dead. Which he wasn't.

He stared at everyone with wide eyes, before following the irritated instructions of the nurses as they forced him back into the bed and began to hook him up again.

The doctor sighed, before looking over at Gibbs, her face scrunched with irritation. "I'll leave you with him and go to organise more tests for him," she explained, before walking briskly out of the room – though not before Gibbs heard her muttering something about how even Andrew hadn't been as difficult as this during his stay. Gibbs had to crack a small smile at that, remembering how much his foster son had detested the entire stay. That boy hated hospitals with a passion.

Once Alex had been settled in the bed again (though not without a stern word from the senior nurse not to move again unless he wanted to be strapped down to the bed), Gibbs moved to sit beside the boy, just as he had been when he'd woken up. The two sat there in silence as all of the medical staff left the room, before Alex finally spoke.

"I wanted to hear what you were saying," he explained, and Gibbs gave a nod in response.

"I kind of guessed that," he answered, a hint of amusement in his voice.

After a few moments of silence, Alex looked over at Gibbs with furrowed brows. "So… could you tell me what you were talking about…?"

Gibbs pretended to think for a few moments before answering, "No."

Alex sighed.

"What I will do is ask what you were doing last night at the Petty Officer's house."

Alex's mind drew a blank. He had no idea who Gibbs was talking about, let alone what he did last night. The doctor had already tried to probe that out of him, he was pretty sure of that. "I thought you two had realised: I have no idea what happened last night, unless it was the night my foster parents took me out for dinner. But that was on Monday night, and apparently today  _isn't_  Tuesday." That's when Alex realised why Gibbs was asking. "Wait… you think I'm a part of your case, don't you? You think I have something to do with that whoever it was dying?"

Gibbs took in a slow breath before he spoke. "We have yet to work that out," he explained. "All that we know is that you were found at the scene, unconscious, and apparently drugged. And we think it's linked." He sat up a little straighter. "And considering you were probably given a dose that could've killed you but instead just knocked you out, you're going to have to go into witness protection."

Alex brows furrowed deeply. "Witness protection…?" Was he even a witness if he couldn't remember anything that happened?

"As soon as you get out of here."

Alex's expression then turned desperate. "How soon do you think we can make that?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *I used the official date - there seems to be quite a bit of conflict as to when Alex's birthday actually is.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please tell me what you thought!


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I have another chapter for you all! I got this one out sooner than the previous one (again... I am so sorry about that...) which I hope you guys are glad for! I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

"What've you got?" Gibbs called out as he walked briskly into the bullpen, regular morning coffee in hand. This was the second day he was working whilst the kids were on holiday this week, and the two of them weren't pleased about it at all. Granted, they were staying over at Alice's for the day (which Andrew seemed to be really pleased about, actually), but the two of them would've rather spent the day with Gibbs, as they had been doing for a fair bit of the holiday. Not to mention, this was one case that he wasn't really telling Andrew anything about (not that he was supposed to tell him anything about the cases anyway, but they just kind of…  _slipped out_  during their late-night conversations over boat building), so the teen was even more disgruntled.

As soon as Gibbs spoke, the three agents moved to rattle off the information they'd gathered over the day Gibbs had gone to visit Alex at the hospital and wait for him to wake up. From what they'd heard, he'd woken up not too long after he'd arrived, but the doctors were concerned and still wanted to keep an eye on him.

"The dead Petty Officer's name is Peter Marks," Tony announced first as he stood, remote in hand as he moved towards the screen. It took one press of a button for the dead Petty Officer's face to show up on the screen, the man looking young (and alive) in his uniform with his red hair cropped and his eyes practically piercing into the camera. Tony pressed some more buttons as he continued to speak. "He was born 30th October 1982 to Corporal Harrison Marks and Mrs Lydia Marks, one older brother and younger twin sisters. His older brother works at a law firm in Seattle and his sisters study computer science at MIT and Stanford. His mother passed away due to cancer three years ago, and his father lives with one of his sisters. He graduated from Ohio State in 2003… and went off the grid for a couple of years before coming back on as a marine in 2009." Tony furrowed his brow. "Boy, does this family have a lot of computer scientists."

"It's a broad area," McGee pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, McGeek would know." He turned to give McGee a teasing laugh, when he noticed the glare Gibbs was giving him and promptly decided to shut up.

Ziva took this as her cue to start speaking, snatching the remote from Tony's hand as she relayed what she'd found. "The Petty Officer lives alone," she explained, pulling up housing documents for the man's places of residence as well as official documents. "No known partner on any official documents… which show he has two homes – one in Quantico, on base, and one off-base, where he was attacked." Her brows furrowed. "Though, how he can afford two homes on his salary is very…"

"…Abnormal?" McGee suggested, noticing how she was struggling to come up with a word. At the unsure look on Ziva's face, he decided to try another word. "Mysterious?"

"Fraudulent?" Tony piped up.

"Strange," Ziva concluded, the word finally coming to mind. "The money has to have come from somewhere, but that would require going through all of his accounts and tracing them all – a skill which I do not have." She sent McGee a sly look.

The younger man sighed. "Alright, I'll get on it."

Ziva continued to rattle off information she'd found. "The Petty Officer studied Criminology at Ohio State, and graduated in 2003 as Tony said… he has no criminal record…" Her brows furrowed as she turned back to Gibbs. "I couldn't find anything else."

Gibbs gave her a single nod, before turning to look at McGee expectantly.

The younger agent pursed his lips. "The first thing I did was look for cameras." He moved to stand and take the remote from Ziva, bringing up two different videos. "I found two cameras out on the street, one down at the traffic lights at the bottom, and one further along the street where one of the neighbours had cameras installed outside his house for safety reasons. There were cameras inside the house, but they were fire-walled so I haven't been able to get into them yet." Glancing back at Gibbs' face, he noticed the look the man was giving him and gave a single nod. "I'll get on all that asap, Gibbs."

Gibbs nodded, taking a sip from his cup of coffee. "Alright, find meeveryone he's been in contact with over the past few weeks," he ordered the other two, turning to head out of the bullpen. "I want names, addresses and alibis, and as much information on the Petty Officer as possible." Just as he was leaving the bullpen, he thought of something. "And find out why he was off the grid for 6 years!"

* * *

Unlike what the doctor said, during the length of his stay Alex was relatively… actually, he was a  _lot_  calmer and quieter than Andrew had been – at least, he was in Gibbs' opinion. Probably because he wasn't going to be there for as long, but still.

Other than that blip on the day he'd woken up, where he'd pulled himself out of bed and set off the monitors, he'd been quiet, chatting politely with nurses and doctors when necessary, not causing a ruckus… and not even being that moody. Just… quiet.

It was nice, but at the same time it worried the staff. Alex was quiet, but he was also reserved, closed off, almost haunted. When he was alone, he was silent, and it was difficult to tell whether he was awake or just asleep with his eyes open. He didn't interact with any of the other patients, and never asked for anything unless it was offered to him. Alex almost acted… like a traumatised boy.

And that was without the late night screaming and sobbing.

That night after Alex had become conscious, the monitors had gone crazy, and about half the staff had been required to restrain Alex and wake him up before he could hurt himself. One of the interns thought he was reliving the moments before he'd been knocked out, but Doctor Martins thought there was something more to it.

Despite this, the following morning they'd realised that his concussion had gone down, and the teen was lucid enough to hold a conversation without getting irritated at himself for forgetting specific details, meaning that he was well enough to be released to Gibbs and the team.

Gibbs and the team who had tried to call his foster family, but had been snapped at for doing so by Alex, who seemed to want to get the case out of the way before having anything to do with them again. A fact that worried Gibbs greatly, but he didn't mention it to anyone. After all, he could see that the others were worried enough by that fact – they didn't need to see that their "fearless leader" was also worried about what Alex was doing.

Although, once the authorities in charge of childcare had been mentioned, Alex had reluctantly agreed to contacting his family to explain the situation, his face soured after the conversation had gone down. Why he hadn't wanted to contact his family, Gibbs had no idea – it was weird, honestly, but from what he'd seen… this teen wasn't exactly normal.

Of course, Doctor Martins' concerns only helped to confirm his thoughts.

"Agent Gibbs, there is something about that boy…" she muttered to him as the two of them watched him being guided into the wheelchair. It had been about a day since Alex had been brought in, and he was finally being discharged – the doctors were pleased enough with his recovery from the concussion that they were willing to let him go… into witness protection ("just in case," Gibbs had said). Alex hadn't complained much – he'd known that something was wrong for him to be found at a crime scene and hospitalised, even though his CT scan had apparently not shown too much damage – but that didn't mean he was happy with it; this was shown by the slight scowl on his face as he was helped into the wheelchair, despite the nurse talking to him and trying to make him feel better.

Gibbs glanced towards her as she spoke. Honestly… he had a feeling she was right, but he wasn't going to start jumping to conclusions. Not when he barely knew anything about the boy. The most they knew about him was his name, age, and phone numbers to his foster family members.

At Gibbs' lack of an answer, she turned him, seemingly scrutinising him. She appeared to come to a conclusion when she spoke again, "Keep an eye on him. I'd like you to keep this one alive and uninjured."

Gibbs knew that was a jab at what happened with Andrew, but he showed no sort of emotion as he rolled his eyes, instead moving towards the nurses' station to start signing Alex's release forms. The doctor already knew it hadn't been his fault that the boy had been injured, but he supposed he understood her worry; having a young teenager arrive with a wound to the stomach that  _wasn't_  from a gang fight wasn't something you saw every day, honestly.

It took about five minutes for Gibbs to read over all of the forms and sign them, before he turned to Alex, who was sat in the wheelchair beside him. "You ready?" he asked the teen as he handed over the signed forms.

Alex shrugged a little, giving some sort of half-hearted, wry smile. "As I'll ever be," he said. The agent nodded and began to head out to where he had the car parked. The nurse pushed Alex beside Gibbs as the older man moved off, pausing every once in a while to make sure Alex was okay. By the time they reached the car, both Alex and Gibbs were annoyed by the sound of her voice.

As soon as he felt he was close enough, Alex pushed himself out of the wheelchair, ignoring the nurse's protests and opening the car door before climbing in. The woman grumbled sourly before glaring at Gibbs, who had a slight smirk on his face as he moved around the vehicle to climb into the driver's seat. "You buckled up?" he asked the teen as he buckled himself in. At the mumble of affirmation he got from Alex, Gibbs started the car and moved off, giving a half-wave to the disgruntled nurse standing on the kerb.

* * *

Alex didn't know how long it took for them to reach their destination – all that he really knew was that he closed his eyes for what felt like a moment, and the next thing he knew he could feel the car coming to a stop. His eyes slowly fluttered open and found they were in a parking garage – or whatever the Americans called them. A minute later, Gibbs turned off the engine, before looking over at Alex.

"I see you're awake," he said simply.

Alex blinked slowly, before nodding and stifling a yawn. He hadn't expected to drift off, but he'd done just that, and he was feeling a little disoriented now that he'd woken up.

When Gibbs realised that Alex wasn't quite up for speaking yet, he unbuckled himself and moved to open the door. "Come on, let's get inside."

Alex gave another nod as he unbuckled himself, moving to get out of the car. Within a few minutes, Gibbs was leading the teenager through the building, heading up in the elevator to the bullpen. When the elevator dinged, all three of the MCRT agents looked over – Tony and McGee seemed slightly surprised to see Alex up and moving, if the looks on their faces were any indication; if Ziva was surprised, she managed to mask it well. Gibbs walked briskly over to his desk, the teen hurrying to keep up with him.

The bullpen was practically silent as Alex stood by Gibbs, his eyes looking around. The agents would've thought nothing of it – just that he was a curious teenager. In fact, Tony and McGee actually  _didn't_  think anything of it; it was Ziva who watched Alex cautiously, not even looking away when he caught her staring. The startled look on his face didn't even faze her.

It took a few minutes for Gibbs to be done with whatever he was doing, putting the phone down before turning to Alex. "Come on," he told the teen simply, before heading towards the other end of the bullpen. It took Alex a split second to realise that Gibbs was actually talking to him and wanted him to start following again – that split second meant that he had to jog a fair distance to catch up with the older man.

"Uh…" Alex started, speaking his first words since leaving the hospital, "where are we going…?"

"To see a friend." The two of them stopped outside another elevator, waiting for it to arrive.

Alex nodded before looking down at his feet, considering whether he should go ahead and ask the next question or not. He decided to do so anyway. "And… um… where is this… friend…?" he asked cautiously.

"Autopsy." Gibbs didn't quite register the immediate answer until he realised Alex's face had blanched, and he smirked slightly as he moved to correct himself. "He's an M.E., but he knows other things. We need to talk to him."

Alex's brows furrowed, and he had an incredulous expression on his face. " _We_?" What on  _earth_  could Alex want to talk to the man about?

Soon enough, the elevator arrived, and the two of them stepped into it before Gibbs pressed the button for one of the lower floors. Alex shuddered internally – it was even underground. The creepiness factor had increased tenfold.

Eventually, the elevator dinged and came to a slow stop, the doors gradually opening and revealing a bluish-grey corridor with doors leading off it. Gibbs led the teen out into the corridor, heading towards the first door on the left. The doors slid open automatically, and Alex was immediately met with the harsh coolness of the boxes preventing the bodies from decomposing. Slowing to a stop near the door, Alex had visibly paled.

"Jethro, I see that you've—Jethro!" An elderly man, in what seemed to be a tweed suit with a bow tie, rose from a desk on the far side of the room, heading straight past Gibbs towards the pale teenager by the door. As he approached Alex, he turned to look towards Gibbs. "You of all people should know how uncomfortable first-time visitors get down here – particularly children!" Gesturing over to a man who had just come out of what seemed to be a coat closet, he beckoned him over. "Mr Palmer, get this boy a chair, please."

The young man nodded and blurted out a, "Yes, Doctor Mallard," before pushing over one of the wheelie chairs by the desk. As soon as it was behind Alex, the teen was pushed down into it, being told to take deep breaths and focus on the man in front of him.

After a few minutes (and a cup of tea), some of the colour had returned to Alex's face.

"How are you feeling, my boy?" the older man asked. Alex took a sip from the mug of tea in his hands, glancing over to Gibbs (who stood on the far side of the room, a coffee in his hand as he leaned on the wall) before back at the man in front of him.

"Better," he answered quietly. That answer seemed to be enough for the man, who pulled over the other seat at the desk so that he could sit opposite Alex. There were a few moments of silence as Alex seemed to settle a bit more, before the man spoke again.

"So, Jethro, are you going to introduce me to this boy, or are we going to have to do everything ourselves?" he jibed at the man standing by the wall.

Gibbs rolled his eyes, though he had a small smile on his face. "Ducky, this is Alex."

The blonde looked up from the tea in his hands when his name was spoken, only to meet the kind smile of the man opposite him.

"Hello, Alex, my boy," he greeted. "I'm Doctor Mallard, but everyone around here calls me 'Ducky'."

The teen couldn't help the slight quirk of his mouth. "Ducky?"

"It has something to do with my surname."

_Mallard. Mallard duck._  That made sense to Alex – quite amusing, but it made sense. Then a confused expression appeared on his face. "Uh… why am I here?" he asked slowly, looking between Ducky and Gibbs.

It didn't take Ducky long to realise that Gibbs wasn't going to answer, so he spoke. "I heard that you possibly have a form of amnesia," he explained, though that wasn't the whole truth. But Ducky wasn't going to tell the boy that the doctor from the hospital had asked Gibbs to analyse and keep an eye on his mental state – a mental state that clearly showed its instability when he was asleep.

Alex pursed his lips. "Are you going to help me try and recover the memories…?" he questioned.

"That is my aim, yes."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"Well we aren't just going to give up after one try," Ducky explained. "From what I hear, you've… well, you have turned down any opportunity to return to your foster family until all of this is sorted out. A brave move, but it could mean that you are away from them for a while."

Alex shrugged a little. It wasn't as if he wasn't used to being away from his caretakers every once a while – after all, after the past couple of years, he was beginning to feel like it was going to be the norm. "I don't want them to get involved. They've been through enough. And… Edward's a journalist."

Just as he'd hoped, it caused a slight narrowing of Gibbs' eyes. No government agent liked to deal with the media on a good day, so keeping them out of the case was probably looking like a better idea now.

Ducky, on the other hand, had focused on the "been through enough" part. He didn't understand what the teen meant by that, but he was going to look into it more once this session was over. "Very well. If you feel as if that is the best move for you, I won't question it. Now," he stood and headed over to the desk, grabbing a notepad and a pen before heading back over to Alex, sitting back down. "How about we start trying to recover those memories, shall we?"

* * *

Ziva's lips were pursed as she turned back to her work, focusing on finding the information Gibbs wanted. Or, at least, trying to focus. Focusing tended to be difficult when something else was taking the forefront in your mind.

Ziva's lack of focus was something Tony picked up on, choosing it as an opportunity to tease her.

"Something on your mind, Zeevah?" he asked, stretching out and mispronouncing her name to catch her attention. By the glare that appeared on her face, it seemed to work.

"Something is not right," she muttered, though it was more to herself than to the man who had asked her the question.

Tony's eyebrows rose, not expecting her to actually answer the question. "What?"

"The boy," Ziva explained, speaking more loudly and catching McGee's attention. "There is something not right about him."

"What do you mean?" McGee asked, half listening to the conversation and half trying to hack through the firewalls to the Petty Officer's security footage.

Ziva huffed, looking slightly more irritated with the men at how clueless they were. "Did you not realise how he looked around the room? How he seemed to almost analyse the room, as if he was figuring out escape routes?" She almost growled at the clueless looks on their faces. "Do you two not recognise when an individual is scanning for a threat?!" At the blank looks she continued to receive, she threw her arms up into the air in exasperation. "Useless!"

Though Tony would never admit it… he had a gut feeling that Ziva was right.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys! You know what? Holidays are great when it comes to writing - I'm definitely getting this out to you guys a lot faster than I expected. Anyway, here's my next chapter for you. As I said when I started writing this, the story is going to have pretty much the same storyline and (I'm hoping) the same plot content, with some minor changes to fit character development. So this chapter is longer, but pretty much matches the same chapter in the original with some changes... and kind of feels more like a filler to me? I'm not sure.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Read on!

Alex was pretty much silent as he followed Gibbs away from the morgue (Alex internally shuddered at the word) and towards the elevator that would (Alex hoped) take them up to the floor levels above ground and allow him to feel a whole lot less claustrophobic. The fact that it was also considerably colder down there didn’t help Alex to feel better about the whole “being below ground” situation.

He had to admit, his first session with  _Ducky_  was… well, it wasn't the greatest, he supposed. The man was nice, he had to admit… and he almost reminded him a bit of the old Smithers he was used to… (the British accent didn't help with that one bit) but the man spoke a lot. He was trying to get Alex to remember what had happened, but Alex could also tell that he was trying to get him to open up – and that just made him close himself off even more. Something he was pretty sure wouldn't help with remembering what happened, but he didn't really care when this guy was trying to find out about parts of him that Alex wanted to keep buried  _deep down_  and never allow to resurface. The whole thing felt too intrusive to him, and he just wanted to get the case over and done with – but not with everyone knowing every little bit about him. That was a huge no-no.

Once Doctor Mallard had realised they weren't really getting anywhere, he'd called Gibbs down (who had disappeared off – most likely to the bullpen to get information from his agents or something) to pick Alex up and get him somewhere more comfortable. Alex was grateful for that, really, because the morgue wasn't exactly somewhere he wanted to spend his entire day, but he tried not to let it show. After all, the old doctor was trying to help with the memories.

Where Alex was dropped off next, though, was a bit of a surprise – at least, it was to the teen. After all, of all the places he expected to go, remaining below ground level was not what he expected… and it crept him out a little.

That was, until he stepped out of the elevator. He'd barely even stepped through the automatic doors when he heard the music blaring out – and if he was hearing it all the way out by the elevators then how much louder would it be at the origin of the music?

Not only that, but whoever was playing the music seemed to be into heavy rock, and from what he could remember from school, those who listened to this kind of music… tended not to be the friendliest of individuals.

Which definitely set him on edge.

Either way, he followed Gibbs down the corridor and towards the source of the sound, slowly reaching up to cover his ears so that the sound didn't  _deafen_  him.

It didn't take them too long to reach their destination: a forensics lab, by the looks of it, with various pieces of equipment running and a computer placed in the middle of the first room, facing a wall with a large TV screen; on the far side of the room, there appeared to be another glass door that led out to an office-type room. In the middle of the forensics lab, at one of the computers, a dark-haired woman in a lab coat seemed to be typing away, flipping between pages on her computer. Alex just about had time to see the tattoo on the side of her neck before the grey haired man started yelling.

"Abby!  _Abby_!"

It took a few calls for the woman to finally turn around, eyes wide, before dashing over to a radio in the corner and turning down the volume. As soon as it was turned down, she turned to face them, a large smile on her face.

"Gibbs! You've come to greet me!" The smile then turned into a slight frown. "I haven't got anything more to tell you, though! I would've called you if I had, and saved you coming down here!"

"I'm not here for lab results," Gibbs responded, though he had a small smile on his face. Then he gestured to the teen behind him. "I need you to take care of someone for me."

"Oh, a new kid!" She leaned around Gibbs to take a look at Alex. "Hi there!"

Alex jumped a little, not expecting her overt friendliness at all. "Uh… hi," he returned, suddenly wrapping his arms around himself, trying to make himself seem smaller.

Abby seemingly wasn't perturbed by his lack of response, instead turning to Gibbs to see if she could obtain more information from him.

"This is Alex," Gibbs introduced the boy behind him. "He's the boy we found at the scene."

"Oh!" Her face then saddened. "Oh… are you okay…?"

Alex was slightly surprised by the sudden sincerity, but didn't appear to show it, only shrugging in response to her question.

It was his lack of response this time that worried Abby, and she looked to Gibbs for help.

The older man leaned in and pecked her on the cheek. "You take care of him well and there's a Caf-Pow! waiting for you," he told her as he moved away. He sent her one last smile before turning to leave the room, though he paused beside Alex. "She'll take care of you, don't worry. I'll be back to pick you up later."

Alex gave Gibbs a small nod, though he still looked very uncertain about the whole situation. Gibbs gave his own nod in response, before passing the boy and leaving the room.

It wasn't until the two of them heard the elevator ding to announce its arrival and the doors slide shut before either of them spoke.

"So, I'm guessing you came straight here from the hospital?" Abby asked as she turned back to her work, beginning to type away at the computer. When it seemed as if Alex was reluctant to answer, she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.

Alex decided he should at least try to make polite conversation with her – after all, if he was going to be there the entire rest of the day with her, it would be really sucky if he was silent the whole time – for the both of them. "Yeah," he finally answered. "That man… um… Gibbs…" He gave a little awkward shrug. "He… he signed my release papers."

Abby gave a small smile at that – partially because he was actually speaking (and actually had quite a pleasant British accent), and partially because of all people it was  _Gibbs_  who signed the release forms and was therefore, technically, taking Alex in until everything was solved.

Well, that last part was apparently at Alex's request, but kudos to Gibbs for taking the kid in anyway.

"Good old Gibbs – always looking out for the kids." She turned back to face her work and began speaking about anything and everything – Alex wasn't exactly sure what she was on about, because he'd decided to go ahead and start looking around.

Instead of heading towards the office at the back, Alex headed towards the lab equipment and table on the near side of the room. There was a lot of stuff there – stuff that he didn't understand, stuff that was probably delicate and he shouldn't touch, and a whole lot of evidence on the table as well. In fact, his eyes were drawn to one particular bag of evidence, because for some reason he recognised it as something important; this bag contained what seemed to be a box, though the box didn't seem to have been opened at all.

He was so transfixed on it that he almost missed something Abby said, his ears tuning in just as she said, "he's done this before".

Head snapping up, he stared at her with wide eyes. "…What was that…?"

Abby looked back at him over her shoulder. "Oh, I was just saying how Gibbs has kinda done this before," she explained. "You know, taken in kids? The last pair were under protection because their parents were killed."

Alex's eyebrows rose at that. "What happened to them…?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, they live with him now." She sent him a grin. "Since you're staying with Gibbs, you'll probably get to meet them today!"

Alex pursed his lips at that.  _Great… more innocent people to put in danger. Just what he needed._

It was a good couple of hours later when Gibbs arrived to pick Alex up from the lab. The teen was sat in Abby's office, cross-legged on her wheelie chair with a box of pizza in his lap. He looked up with wide eyes when he heard the door slide open and the music decrease in volume, partway through eating a slice of pizza.

Gibbs let out a small chuckle at the sight of the teen eating the pizza. "Come on, you can eat it in the car," he told him, only letting out another chuckle at the slight grin that Alex gave at that as he stood, pizza box in one hand and slice of pizza in the other.

As Abby waved him goodbye, he sent her a smile. "I hope you enjoyed yourself!" she called out after the teen as he followed Gibbs out of the lab. As she turned back to the computer bench, she grinned at the sight of the sweet, caffeinated beverage sitting there waiting for her. Picking it up, she took a sip with a satisfied smile. A good day's work done.

The ride to the Gibbs residence was a quiet one, despite the distinct lack in the tension that had been there earlier – probably due to the cheesy, doughy dish currently on Alex's lap. The teen spent more time staring out of the window as he munched on his meal than speaking to Gibbs, even though (from what the older man had heard from Abby) the teen could be very talkative and was actually rather pleasant to hold a conversation with when he was comfortable.

Eventually, after passing numerous trees (which Alex had actually been counting in his silence) and even more houses, the two of them reached Gibbs' place, with the car pulling to a stop outside the residential building. As soon as Gibbs turned off the engine, Alex moved to take off his seatbelt, having finished the box of pizza in his lap. Gibbs locked the car doors as soon as they'd both climbed out, and led the teen up to the house. Alex glanced around as they headed up to the front door, noticing the bike that had been left out on the lawn but had not been touched – probably because people knew who lived at the house, he supposed.

Following Gibbs through the front door into the house, Alex's eyes continued to scan what was around him.

The corridor walls were a warm cream colour, with the floor being a dark brown wood. There were a couple of (literally – Alex could only count two or three) pictures hung up on the wall – none of them with Gibbs in them, Alex noted, surprised – and there were a couple of wall coat hangers by the door as well. Apart from that, the hallway was pretty much empty until the stairs were reached.

Gibbs shut the door behind the teen, before moving to take the empty pizza box from him. "Head on into the lounge, get comfortable."

Alex simply stared after Gibbs as he walked off – most likely into the kitchen to throw the pizza box into the bin – before he slowly headed into the lounge, his eyes still darting around curiously. The theme in here was pretty much the same as the corridor, with the cream walls and the dark wooden floors, but there were a few more pictures hung along the walls and a few of these actually included Gibbs in them. There was a coffee table in the middle of the room, with beige coloured couches and a beige armchair surrounding three sides of it – one long side and two short sides. The remaining long side was left so that the TV could be seen, and Alex spotted an X-Box 360 on the floor next to it. When he deemed himself comfortable enough, he sat down on one of the couches.

Gibbs emerged from the kitchen, just off the lounge. "Want a drink?" he asked.

Alex took a brief moment to think about that. He hadn't really had anything to drink all day, other than a bottle of water that one of the agents – he thought his name was  _McGee_  or something…? – brought to him when he'd brought him pizza. "Uh… a glass of water would be nice… thank you," he added the pleasantry onto the end, not wanting to seem impolite.

Gibbs nodded before ducking back into the kitchen, retrieving a glass of water for Alex and returning to the lounge with it. He handed the glass to the boy, who took it with a quiet, "Thank you," before sitting in the armchair and watching the teen. He waited for a few moments before asking, "Do you think you've remembered any more?"

Alex paused halfway through taking a sip, before pulling the glass away from his lips and shaking his head. "No…" Part of him was really disappointed that he hadn't – after all, this team was kind of depending on him to remember some things so that the case could move along more swiftly – but they could still do things without him, right? They could still, at least, solve the case; even if it took a whole lot longer than it should.

Gibbs gave the teen a simple nod. "Don't worry if you can't yet. You'll remember eventually."

Alex just nodded in response, staring down at the glass in his hands. He didn't realise how obvious the disappointment was on his face until Gibbs gave a sigh, catching his attention. As soon as he looked up, though, he made an effort to wipe whatever emotion had previously been on his face off.

"Get some rest," the older man told him as he stood from his seat. Before the teen could argue, he continued, "You just got out of the hospital, and as much as you got to rest in there, today you spent a lot of time thinking and interacting with Abby." Gibbs emphasised on that last part as if he knew how exhausting the younger woman could be. "Recover some energy before dinner. You're going to need it."

Alex was tempted to ask what Gibbs meant by "you're going to need it," but decided against it a moment later, instead nodding and moving to place his glass down on the coffee table before laying down on the couch and curling up. As soon as he'd laid down, Gibbs stood, heading off to bring the boy a blanket.

By the time he'd returned with one, Alex was fast asleep.

When Alex woke up from his nap, he awoke to the smells of a home cooked dinner… and the sounds of more than one person in the house. Something he hadn't expected at all until he remembered what Abby had said to him earlier on that day.

Gibbs had kids living at his place.

Opening his eyes, he was surprised to see a green pair up close to his face – and was even more surprised when the owner of the green eyes jumped back and screamed, before running out of the room.

Staring after the individual for a few moments, he didn't sit up until he heard someone else entering the room.

This new person wasn't that tall – most likely a couple of inches shorter than him – with messy brown hair… and green eyes just like the ones he'd seen earlier. As soon as the other person – guy, it was definitely a  _guy_  physically, Alex noted – spotted him, his eyes narrowed significantly. Alex swung his legs off the couch in an attempt to get up, before noticing that his legs were actually tangled up in thin blankets that had somehow been draped over him. He stared down at his legs for a few moments before up at the guy.

"…Hi," he greeted awkwardly, not sure how the other boy was taking his presence at that moment. From experience, he kind of knew that guys weren't too fond of other guys being on their territory – especially if they were new guys that they didn't know. And, if his deductions were correct, he was not only the new guy, but a new guy around a sibling or younger family member. Spotting a little girl peeping around the guy's legs, he decided to opt for little sister.

"Who are you?" the boy suddenly demanded forgoing all greetings and deciding to get straight to the point.

Alex pursed his lips. "Gibbs didn't tell you anything…?" He'd thought the older man would.

"He did," the boy answered, "but you scared my sister, and I want to hear it from you."

Alex furrowed his brows, not really getting the guy's logic, but before he could give any sort of retort (which would probably anger the other boy or something) the front door opened, and soon after that Gibbs walked into the lounge with both arms holding filled grocery bags.

It didn't take the man long to realise that there was tension in the room, and he internally sighed. "You're awake," he said, looking over at Alex.

The blonde teen nodded. "Yeah, I am," he replied as Gibbs began to hand the brunette boy the groceries in his arms. Said brunette frowned.

"You haven't responded to my question."

"Andrew…" Gibbs warned, shooting the boy a look.

Alex decided to steel up and answer his questions – after all, if he was going to be there until the case finished (and he didn't know how long that would take), he wasn't going to let this guy walk all over him and demand things out of him the entire time. That just wasn't how Alex rolled. "I'm Alex."

"And you're a Brit."

That statement confused Alex slightly. "…Yes."

"What's a Brit doing over here in the States?"

Alex scowled. "We have Yanks over in the UK," he retorted.

Before their "conversation" could escalate into a fully-blown argument, Gibbs stepped in again. "He's here for a case, Andrew," Gibbs interrupted sharply, "and you know that. Now you and Jessica get these groceries to the kitchen and start unpacking them so we can get dinner going."

The little redheaded girl didn't hesitate in scampering off to the kitchen to do as she was told, but it took a nudge and a glare from Gibbs to get the guy to leave and do as he was told. It wasn't until he heard the clacking of the cupboards being opened and shut as groceries were put away that Gibbs decided to start speaking to Alex.

"Those were Andrew and Jessica, my… foster children," Gibbs explained as he moved to sit on the couch beside Alex's. "Not used to strangers."

Alex simply nodded, before leaning down and getting to work untangling him from the blankets around his legs and feet. "Understandable," he replied simply. "I'd be the same."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at the answer – he knew  _exactly_  why Andrew and Jessica were like that, so for Alex to compare himself to the two of them like that made Gibbs the slightest bit suspicious about who exactly Alex was. Instead of dwelling on it, however, he decided to focus on what he'd originally planned to say to Alex. "We need to grab you some clothes to wear whilst you're staying."

Alex paused and nodded slowly. "Do you need me to come with you and give directions?"

"We just need the address."

"I can't remember it."

Gibbs gave him a scrutinising look.

Alex pursed his lips. "I don't want them to see you without me."

"And I don't want you to be seen out in public where you could be targeted when there's barely anyone to protect you."

"You're protection enough."

"Not against snipers, I'm not."

The expression on Alex's face soured. He knew it was true… but still. He didn't want Sabina and her parents to meet a federal agent, but not see him with them. He knew they'd get worried. "Fine."

Gibbs gave a simple nod. "Address?"

"It's… some sort of convention centre in Baltimore…? I think. Edward… he's attending some sort of journalism convention. Liz brought Sabina and I to Washington for the day to sightsee."

"You remember the name?"

"…Hampton Inn…?"

Gibbs nodded and stood. "Andrew!" he called out towards the kitchen. When the teen stepped out, he had his arms crossed across his chest.

"Yes, Gibbs?"

"You know the bedding you get out when the twins come over for sleepovers?"

The teen blinked slowly, though he appeared to know where this was going. "Yes…"

"Get it out and put it in your room. Alex will be sleeping there." As Andrew opened his mouth to protest, Gibbs shot him a glare. " _Now_. I need to head out and grab some stuff."

The teen clenched his jaw, his face beginning to redden, before he stormed up the stairs to do as he was told. Gibbs sighed, running a hand over his face, before popping into the kitchen to tell Jessica where he was going, and then bidding them all farewell as he headed out of the door.

The near silence in the house (other than the sound of slamming cupboard doors that obviously came from upstairs) was enough to tell Alex that this was going to be a  _long_  stay.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Here I have another chapter for you! I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas and New Year - I know I did, anyway; plus I got some writing done, hench, the chapter! I'm still on holidays for the rest of this week, so this might be the last batch of writing you guys get for a while (I have exams in a couple of weeks, which I've been studying for as well).
> 
> This chapter is not as long as my previous ones, and (again) feels more like a filler, though it follows the same/similar storyline as the original story with some extra bits added in to develop it a bit more. I hope you guys like the chapter, though!

Gibbs pulled up in front of the conference centre, pulling swiftly into one of the parking spaces available. As soon as he had taken his seatbelt off, he climbed out of the vehicle, locking it and heading towards the front doors to the building.

As much as he was there to get some of Alex's stuff from his foster family, he was also very curious. They'd found the teen alone at the crime scene. Had no one been worried about him? As far as he could tell, there hadn't been any calls about him, and they were the ones who called them about Alex – granted, they'd sounded incredibly relieved when they'd called to inform them of Alex's condition, as if it wasn't as bad as it could be, but Gibbs wasn't too sure about them considering if it was Andrew he'd be worried sick.

Entering the lobby, Gibbs glanced around for a few moments. Gibbs had to admit, despite how the building appeared to him on the outside, the inside looked pretty modern and not too shabby. Sure, he wasn't too fond of the whole sports theme going on – he liked sports, but this was  _too much_  – but it looked comfortable.

Heading straight to the reception desk, the agent caught the attention of the suited young man stood there, who gave him a pleasant smile.

"Good afternoon, sir," he greeted, moving to stand attentively in front of the man with a welcoming smile on his face. "Welcome to Hampton Inn Baltimore, how may I help you today?"

Gibbs decided to get right to the point, pulling out his badge and showing it to the young man in front of him. "My name is Special Agent Gibbs, I'm from NCIS." He closed the badge and slipped it back into his pocket. "Is there a Journalism Convention happening here?"

The young man, startled enough by the fact that the man in front of him was an agent, nodded hastily. "In fact, there is!" His eyes widened. "Do you have some sort of special case that has something to do with a journalist?"

Gibbs' eyebrows rose.

"I watch a lot of crime shows," he admitted with a guilty smile. "I kind of have an idea of what you guys do."

Gibbs resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the boy, deciding to get to his main point instead. "Is there a Mr. Edward Pleasure attending the conference and staying at this hotel?"

"Let me just have a check for you, sir." The young man slid almost eagerly over to the computer sitting at the desk, typing for a few moments before looking back up at Gibbs. "There does, in fact, appear to be a Mr. Pleasure staying here, though I'm not sure as to whether he's staying for the conference. Would you like me to call up to his room for you, or would you just like the room number?"

"Just the room number, please."

* * *

A few minutes later, Gibbs was standing outside a room on the fourth floor, knocking on it. A few moments later, the door opened, and a man stood in the doorway. He appeared to be a middle aged man, possibly in his late forties to early fifties, with greying hair and a cane held tightly in his hand as he leaned on it. At that moment in time, his appearance showed that he was fairly tired, though his eyes showed the complete opposite. He looked Gibbs up and down briefly before he spoke.

"Can I help you?"

"Mr. Pleasure?" Gibbs asked in response. At the man's hesitant nod, he continued, pulling out his badge to show him. "My name is Special Agent Gibbs, from NCIS. I'm here to pick up some things for your foster son, Alex."

Edward's brows furrowed. "Reception didn't mention anything about his things being collected."

"I asked them not to call."

The man was obviously suspicious of Gibbs, but moved aside anyway, letting the agent in and shutting the door behind him. "I'm guessing Alex is out of hospital now."

"That's right," Gibbs answered simply.

"How is he?"

"Quiet."

Gibbs didn't miss the small, sad smile Edward cracked before he wiped it off his face. "Was he injured?"

"Not too seriously." There was silence for a few moments.

"Look, Special Agent Gibbs," Edward suddenly spoke up, interrupting the silence and drawing Gibbs' attention from where he had been curiously looking around the room, "I know that you're here for Alex's things, but I'm also a journalist, and I have a feeling you want to find out something more about me, or my family. And I'd appreciate it if you could just ask what you'd like to know rather than just making me nervous."

"What was Alex doing all the way in Virginia when you're staying in Baltimore?" Gibbs asked suddenly, looking over at the man with a frown.

The man sighed as he walked towards one of the armchairs in the room, supporting himself on his cane. "You'll have to ask my wife and daughter for the specifics, but last I knew, they were heading in that direction to visit a family friend of ours."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose at that. "And where are your wife and daughter?"

At that moment, there was a click at the door, and it opened to reveal two females entering the suite – one was an older female, appearing around the same age as Edward, long thin hair tied up into a ponytail; the other female was significantly younger, young enough to be her daughter, with freckles dotting her cheeks and her own long hair tied up in a bun. Both of them came to a stop when they spotted Gibbs in the room, the stranger making them both feel uneasy.

Edward gestured towards the two females. "Special Agent Gibbs, my wife and daughter, Elizabeth and Sabina." He then turned to his wife and daughter. "The agent is here to… ask some questions," he explained as Gibbs pulled out his badge, showing his credentials to the two stood by the open door.

Sabina glanced between her father at the man. "Is this about Alex…?" she asked slowly, her brows furrowing.

"How about we shut the door and talk about it?" Gibbs suggested, moving to sit in the other armchair available in the room.

* * *

It took Gibbs a lot more time than Alex expected to return with his stuff, so by the time he'd returned Alex was more than eager to have someone who would actually talk to him – even if Gibbs wasn't much of a talker in the first place. In the time that he'd been gone, he'd learnt only two things about the other children: Jessica was immensely shy, and Andrew had what seemed to be a bad temper. And that was only because Jessica didn't talk to him and avoided him the entire time, whereas Andrew could be heard stomping around and slamming cupboard doors and drawers upstairs. Andrew's temper-tantrum also lasted a good while – he managed to keep it up until Gibbs returned to the house, when he reduced his behaviour to only sour grumbling (no more slamming doors, fortunately).

The man headed straight to Alex (who was still in the lounge) when he returned, setting down a small duffel bag beside him on the couch. "Managed to grab you some stuff. Apparently, you didn't bring much on holiday."

Alex shrugged. "I… I think we were supposed to buy stuff here. I… actually don't have all too much at home."

Alex didn't want to explain the reason why he had so few clothes, but he was hoping Gibbs would take the fact that he was being fostered and leave it at that. Fortunately, Gibbs didn't question it any further, but Alex recognised the slightly curious look that appeared on Gibbs' face. It appeared on most people's faces when he told them about his fostering situation.

Leaning over, Alex picked up the duffel and began to go through it, finding a few t-shirts and shirts, along with some shorts and jeans, and another pair of sneakers. Pretty much everything he'd packed when they'd left San Francisco. He zipped the bag shut when he spotted his Nintendo DS tucked into the corner, beneath his clothes, before offering Gibbs a small, grateful smile.

"Thank you," he said, his smile widening a little when Gibbs gave him a nod.

It was then that Gibbs turned to head towards the kitchen, frowning a little when he realised Jessica wasn't there. "Where's Jessica?" he asked, turning back to Alex.

"She's upstairs," Alex responded, pulling his Nintendo DS out of his duffel bag and checking which game was inserted. "She went up to her room not long after you left." Or rather, she  _ran_  there, but Alex wasn't going to tell Gibbs that.

Gibbs nodded as he turned to head up the stairs. At the foot of the stairs, he looked back over at Alex. "Come on, bring your stuff – we'll get you settled."

Alex paused a little at that. As much as he wanted to get settled (he didn't know how long he'd be staying, after all, and he didn't want to be stuck on that couch for ages), he wasn't so sure he wanted to face Andrew. Sure, it was quite late, but he'd been moody the entire time, and Alex didn't want to face that.

Gibbs pursed his lips at Alex's hesitation. He could understand the apprehension, honestly… but the fact that he was he was looking so unsure even though he'd been in the house for a good few hours said enough about how the kids were behaving.

"We'll get you settled so I can get a start on dinner," he explained. He was pretty sure the other two had been snacking without telling Alex where any of the food was, and he hadn't eaten since that pizza at lunch. "Come on."

Alex reluctantly stood, following Gibbs up the stairs with his bag. Once on the upper floor, the two eventually reached a door with what seemed to be military-themed stickers on the door. Gibbs knocked twice before pushing the door open, walking in.

The room, although slightly messy, was an averagely sized room, with a brown carpeted floor and pale olive green walls, a single bed in the far right hand corner against the wall and a desk against the right hand wall, against the foot of the bed. The bed – with green and brown sheets – sat just to the right of the only window in the room, the bedside table sitting beneath the window with a lamp and an alarm clock on it, and a single drawer in the front of it. On the desk sat a pile of books and papers, as well as a laptop that appeared to be at least a couple of years old. On the opposite side of the room, against the left-hand wall, were his dresser and wardobe, both of which were open at that moment and had clothes spilling out of them, as well as posters on the wall above the dresser and various bits and bobs sitting on the dresser itself. The only part of the room Alex didn't really get to see was the wall the door was set into – there was a cracked mirror hung on the wall, as well as a small table with a few framed photos on it. Alex was tempted to get a closer look at the photos, but upon realising that Andrew was on the bed, playing on what looked like a PlayStation Portable, he decided against it. He paused in the doorway when he noticed that Gibbs was glaring at the teen on the bed.

"Where's the sleeping bag?" the agent demanded.

Andrew merely shrugged, not even looking up from his game. "Couldn't find it," he replied distractedly.

"Get off that game and look for it. You've had hours."

"He can sleep on the floor."

"The way this is going, you'll be sleeping outside."

Andrew seemed to pause at that, debating whether to test Gibbs' threat, before deciding against it and turning off the device in his hands, putting it down on the bed. He swung his feet off the bed and stood, moving to his wardrobe and reaching up into it. Within a few moments he'd pulled out the sleeping bag, as well as a sleeping mat and a spare pillow. Gibbs was watching the teen the entire time, making sure he got everything out (and looking completely unsurprised that the teen had actually found everything already). When Andrew began to try and hand everything over to Gibbs, the older man just gave him a look, until he backed down and began to get the bedding ready on the floor.

Gibbs gave a nod before turning to walk out of the room. As he passed Alex, he placed a hand on his shoulder. "If you need anything, I'll be in the kitchen." He then looked back at Andrew. "Behave," was the last thing he told his foster-son before leaving the two boys in the room.

Alex waited quietly by the door for a few minutes, before cautiously walking into the room. He stood there for a few moments, before putting his bag down by the door. "Do you need any help?" At Andrew's lack of reply, he began to look around the room, focusing on the photos by the door.

There were four photos placed there – three upright and one face down. One of the upright photos was of the boy and Jessica; another was of what looked like the whole of Gibbs' team (he definitely recognised Tony, Ziva, McGee and Abby in the photo) as well as some other people, and Andrew and Jessica, all sat on a beach and laughing; the third was of Andrew and a group of people likely around his age, although his arm seemed to be looped around the waist of the blonde girl beside him. Alex smirked slightly at that. The girl was pretty, with blonde hair and brown eyes, but just looking at how close they were reminded Alex of what he could've had in the UK… or what he could've had with Sabina if they'd been a couple.

"Quit looking at my photos."

The fact that Alex jumped was enough to let him know that: 1. He'd really let his guard down if he thought Andrew wouldn't see him looking at the photos; and 2. He was really out of touch with the whole "knowing when someone is watching you" thing that he used to be great at… which was a good thing, he supposed. It meant that he was more normal than he used to be, that's for sure.

He turned to Andrew quickly. "Sorry."

The other boy just narrowed his eyes at him, before huffing. "Why do you have to stay  _here_  anyway? Can't your parents afford bodyguards or something?"

Alex narrowed his eyes at that. This guy was assuming he came from some sort of rich family, and whilst they weren't exactly poor, it wasn't like they could just hire someone right off the bat. "My foster dad is a journalist – having a bodyguard would just draw more attention to him that he doesn't need."

Andrew seemed to hesitate at the mention of "foster". "What, your real parents can't take care of you?"

"No. They died when I was a baby."

"…Oh." Andrew then seemed to scruitinise Alex for a few minutes. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen," Alex answered easily. Considering his height (and build), he got that question a lot, though he had the feeling it wasn't just because of his height that people asked.

"Huh." Andrew looked fairly surprised at that one as he turned to begin putting some of his clothes away. "You look older."

Alex wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to that. "Uh… thanks?"

"It wasn't really a compliment, but okay."

Alex scowled a little at that, but decided not to comment on it, instead turning to grab his bag so that he could get his stuff ready. After all, according to Gibbs, he was going to be staying there anyway, so he had no choice but to unpack.

Andrew scowled at that, but decided not to comment on it, instead moving to leave the room. He pushed past Alex roughly, muttering a quick, "I'm getting some air; don't touch my stuff."

Alex glared at him as he stormed away. "Dickhead," he grumbled.

* * *

Gibbs looked up from where he was preparing the steaks for dinner to see Andrew at the door, scowling. "What happened?" he sighed, turning back to the steak.

"There's something off about him, and I don't like it," Andrew grumbled. "He's an ass, and I can barely hold a conversation with him!"

"Considering you were up there for so long, I'm guessing you managed to hold at least one civilised conversation with him."

"It was  _painful_ , Gibbs." Andrew shuddered as he walked into the kitchen. "We barely exchanged any words! I wouldn't even have called it a conversation!"

"But you guys managed to have a talk, right?"

"…Well, yeah."

"Then could you at least try to do that for the rest of the case?"

Andrew whined. "But Gibbs…"

"At least give me a little bit of peace whilst I try to solve this case."

"I don't like him, though. He seems fishy… and he called me a ' _dickhead_ ' when he thought I couldn't hear him!"

"Andrew, you remember how you felt when you were at the foster home?" Gibbs took Andrew's silence as a yes and decided to continue. "You know you felt really out of place there because not many people spoke to you? We don't want Alex to feel that way as well. That wouldn't be fair."

The brunette teen hung his head, though whether it was because he was actually ashamed Gibbs didn't know.

"Besides," Gibbs continued, a small smirk on his face as he glanced at Andrew over his shoulder, "sometimes you really are a  _dickhead_ , Andrew."

Andrew looked up indignantly. "Hey!" When he realised Gibbs was chuckling, he scowled. "That's not funny, Gibbs."

"Sure it isn't." He plated up the steaks in the pan, beginning to cook two more. "Just try to get along with him, would you?"

"I'll… I'll try."

Gibbs nodded. "Okay good." He gestured towards a pot of peeled, boiled potatoes sitting on the side. "Mash these for me whilst they're still hot, will ya?" As Andrew approached to do as he was told, he added, "And don't forget the butter this time!"

Andrew rolled his eyes as he turned to retrieve the butter from the fridge, though he had a grin on his face. "Yeah, yeah."


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! So, here's another chapter for you all! This one has definite changes as compared to the original, but it's all just to get it to flow better and fit with changes in character traits and such. But I'm still keeping to the same overall plotline! Or, at least, trying to! It's a little hard when everything feels like a filler, but then you realise in the original quite a lot of it was kind of like a filler...
> 
> Anyway, read on!

Alex honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd been a morning person, but this morning he couldn't help waking up early, and he couldn't get back to sleep. He didn't get why, but from around 8 in the morning he was already up and moving – and by up and moving, he meant awake and playing Super Mario Bros on his DS. That, and thinking over everything that had gone down the night before.

After spending a good amount of time alone in Andrew's room unpacking what he could and leaving the rest in his duffel, Alex had decided to take a look around – and not just at Andrew's room, but he supposed his new place of rest could use some examining first. After all, it was his curiosity that got him into so much trouble in the past – surely in one fostered teenager's room, there wouldn't be anything that classified or dangerous.

Getting up from the sleeping bag on the floor, Alex first decided to approach Andrew's wardrobe, hesitating for a moment before pulling the door open. There was nothing really exciting in there – just t-shirts, shirts, jeans, basically anything Andrew wore. A lot of it happened to be hoodies and sweatshirts, which Alex definitely didn't blame him for – winters could be  _cold_. There were a couple of other things too, like football (no,  _soccer_ ) jerseys, a gym kit, and various other bits and bobs that had been stuffed in there. Closing the wardrobe, Alex decided to take a look at the things on top of the dresser.

The items on the top of the dresser didn't seem to be anything other than normal, really. From what he could guess, Andrew was into sports and liked collecting things – as shown by the football that sat there (American, not British) alongside a hastily folded jersey and a snow globe that was probably a gift from someone. If anything, the stuff on top of the dresser made Andrew seem more like a guy he'd like to be friends with than before.

His eyes shifted down to the drawers in the dresser, but he concluded that he had to at least leave the guy with  _some_  privacy.

Moving on, his eyes landed on the small table by the door. The photos were still as he'd seen them yesterday: three sat up, with one face down. And he was still curious about the one that was face down on the table. It would take all of three seconds for him to approach the table, pick up the photo and set it face-up on the table so that he could observe it… but something told him that it was face-down for a reason. And he didn't want to give this boy another reason to dislike him or anything.

Besides, at that moment Andrew decided to return to his room from… wherever he had been. The teen had what seemed to be a sleeveless hoodie on, with a pair of shorts and running sneakers; earphones were plugged into his ears, and he didn't seem to realise Alex was watching him until he made to move towards his dresser. He furrowed his brows as he pulled one earphone out.

"What?"

"Where were you…?" Alex asked, looking just as confused himself.

The other boy shrugged as he continued to go about his business. "Out," he replied simply, heading straight for the dresser and beginning to rummage around in it for clothes.

"…Where…?"

"It's not really any of your business, is it?" Andrew shot him a look over his shoulder before going back to what he was doing. "Why do you want to know anyway? It's not like you need to care about this stuff. I'm just living my life – you don't need to get involved. You're only under protection." As he finished talking, the teen pulled out a set of clothes, grabbing a towel from his wardrobe before heading past Alex towards the door. "You don't need to make an effort to learn about my life. You stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours."

Alex remained silent as Andrew left the room, shutting the door behind him, before scowling. Granted… he supposed he could understand the other boy's reasons for behaving this way – he probably felt threatened, or something along those lines – but that didn't mean he excused it.

"What an  _arse_ ," he grumbled under his breath, before moving to head out of the room himself – hey, if there was nothing else to snoop around in there, he might as well move on to somewhere else in the house.

Heading down the stairs, Alex decided that the first place he would try snooping was the kitchen – he was getting hungry, and no one had called him down to eat or anything. He supposed he could find something to eat in the cupboards if he searched hard enough.

When he reached the kitchen, however, he was pleasantly surprised to find a plate of breakfast bagels sat on one of the counters; there appeared to be at least ten on there or so, with empty plates stacked beside the plate of food, so Alex decided to help himself to a couple and set them to the side before continuing to look around the kitchen.

Other than the numerous drawings on the fridge, the kitchen looked like any other normal kitchen – a stove with an oven, counters, cupboards and drawers filled with utensils and food, a fridge that was probably also packed with food… there was nothing special about the room to Alex. Other than the fact that it was quiet.

That last fact was what set him on edge, however, and he moved out of the kitchen and towards the lounge to find that it wasn't just that room that was quiet, but the whole house was quiet – save for the shower that was running upstairs. Apart from Andrew, Alex hadn't seen or heard anyone all morning… which kind of worried him.

Where was everyone?

"Gibbs is in the office," a quiet voice piped up from the doorway, and Alex turned quickly to see the small redheaded girl stood there, a plushie and a book clutched to her chest. Her eyes widened when he turned, and she visibly jumped back, moving out of the doorway to hide in the shadows either side. Alex realised too late that this was probably the only chance he would ever have to speak with the girl, and he'd just terrified the heck out of her. Softening the expression on his face, he wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to look less intimidating.

"When did he go…?" he asked.

There was no reply for a little while, and Alex was afraid he'd actually scared her back to her room, but eventually she moved to look around the doorframe a little, blinking big green eyes for a few moments before speaking.

"He goes in every morning."

Alex's brows furrowed. So… he'd been gone for a few hours, he guessed? He hadn't heard anyone leave the house, and he didn't quite think that the walls and doors were soundproof in the house. How had he disappeared for so long? It was as if he hadn't even come back but had been there since the early hours of the morning…

"There are people outside…?" she offered, as if she thought it would provide some sort of solace to him. Of course, by the startled look on his face, that didn't work.

"What kinds of people?"

"…Agents…?" She didn't get why he was so concerned about this. It happened before – when it was herself and Andrew in witness protection. It wasn't anything to worry about. It was actually a good thing.

From the way she mentioned "agents" – in that confused way that made him question why he was so worried – he calmed down, internally berating himself for panicking so much. These guys were there for a reason, and it was a good one. No need to panic.

Instead of responding to her, he gave her a simple nod in affirmative. If a little girl who barely spoke to or trusted anyone could trust these people, then he would be fine. So instead, he sat down and began to dig into his small pile of bagels.

* * *

It was a couple of hours later that Gibbs returned – most likely for lunch so that he could check on the kids. He was fairly surprised to find that Alex was sat on the couch, playing on a Nintendo DS… and Jessica was also sat in the lounge, drawing in her sketchbook. As far as he could remember, she didn't like anyone being in the same room as her when she was using it. His eyebrows rose, and he leaned on the doorframe, watching the two until one of them noticed his presence.

Jessica was the first to notice his appearance, looking up at him and jumping visibly when she realised he was there, letting out a squeak. Alex looked up sharply at this, not knowing what to expect, and visibly calmed down when he realised it was Gibbs.

"You two alright?" the older man asked, remaining in his position leaning against the doorframe. When Jessica didn't answer but instead went back to what she had been doing before, Alex decided to speak up for them both.

"We're alright," the teen answered, continuing to play his game as he spoke. "This couch is comfy, and I promised Jessica that she could draw me whilst I'm on here."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose at that. He definitely hadn't expected the little girl to become attached to Alex – and certainly not this quickly. Whatever Alex had done to earn her trust that quickly was something Gibbs probably needed to tell people about.

Instead of commenting on that, Gibbs decided to change the subject. "Where's Andrew?" he asked, not directing the question to either of the children in particular.

"He hasn't come downstairs since I have," Alex answered, his eyes still glued to his game. Gibbs' eyes narrowed at that answer and glanced over at Jessica – realising that he wasn't getting any sort of social cues indicating that Alex was lying, he moved straight towards the stairs, heading up to see what Andrew was up to.

He was met with the teen laying back and relaxing on his bed, playing on what seemed to be that iPad that McGee had bought them for Andrew's birthday earlier that year.

Gibbs knocked harshly on the open door, causing Andrew to jump and fumble the device in his hands before safely placing it down on the bed. He glared at Gibbs once he'd calmed down. "What was that for?" he snapped.

"What are you doing up here?" Gibbs demanded, though it sounded more like a curious question; Andrew knew that it wasn't.

"Jessica likes to be alone," he stated bluntly, before moving to go back to playing on the iPad.

Gibbs raised a single eyebrow at that. "You think she's alone right now?"

"She might as well be; she's with  _that_  guy."

"Andrew."

"What?" He hadn't intended to be so snappy that time, but it came out that way.

Gibbs narrowed his eyes, about to respond to Andrew's snarky behaviour with his own snippy comment, but instead just sighed. He never got anywhere with Andrew when he was like this – it had happened too many times before.

"How about you go out and get some fresh air?" he suggested.

"I went for a run this morning," Andrew stated, not even taking his eyes off the iPad. Gibbs sighed through his nose; what was it with kids these days and their technology?

"I mean with  _friends_ ," Gibbs added, emphasising on the word 'friends'. Andrew looked up at Gibbs when he made the emphasis, and sighed. "You've spent the last couple of weeks avoiding them, Andrew, and the new year starts next week. Hang out with them whilst you're still free."

Andrew appeared to take a few moments to consider this, before pressing a button on the side of the iPad that made the screen turn black and placing it on the bed. He still had a slightly grouchy look on his face, but seemed a lot less sour than a few moments before. "I guess I'll head out, then."

Gibbs nodded, a small smile on his face. "Good."

"Would it be okay if they popped by here first?"

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at that, before smiling. "Of course."

A smile grew on Andrew's face. "Awesome! I'll, uh… I'll text Alice now." The teen got up to grab his phone – an old Blackberry that McGee had donated to him – and text his girlfriend to ask her to come over.

Gibbs nodded and turned to leave the room, a smile on his face as he headed downstairs. Maybe he couldn't stop Andrew from feeling so hostile towards Alex, but he could definitely make him feel that little bit better whilst they had a guest in the house.

* * *

It took little over half an hour for Alice to arrive at the house, dressed in her typical denim shorts (knee-length, because there was no way her mother would let her get anything higher) and t-shirt with sneakers. She bounded right up towards the front door, only making it as far as halfway up the pathway when she realised that there was an extra figure she didn't recognise in the lounge. She couldn't recall Andy mentioning anything about having a guest, but she supposed she could meet them now anyway.

Reaching the front door, she knocked a couple of times before standing back and letting her eyes wander.

_That_  was when she realised that the black sedan outside Gibbs' place was actually an official Federal Agents' car, and that the two people sat inside were agents. Which worried her, really.

A new person, and the sudden appearance of agents? Couldn't be a coincidence.

Before she could think too much on it, though, the door opened to reveal Special Agent Gibbs, who gave her a short nod and moved aside to let her in. "He'll be down in a minute," he told her, shutting the door behind her once she'd entered and making his way to the kitchen – most likely to continue with preparing lunch or dinner or whatever he was doing.

She gave a simple nod, even though she knew that he wouldn't be able to see it, and headed to the lounge to wait.

The lounge where that new guy was.

Reaching the door to the room, she hesitated when she saw him.

Fair haired, and from what she could see, not that bad looking either. Though, why he was there, she had no idea.

There was also the fact that Jessica was in the room – Jessica who didn't like  _strangers_  Jessica. And she seemed at ease, using the sketchbook that Andy always complained she never let him see. This was… definitely strange to Alice.

"If you want to come in, there's nothing stopping you."

Alice jumped at the sound of his voice. Huh, British. This guy just got weirder and weirder. Either way, she walked into the room, moving to stand at the end of the couch so that she could observe the new guy more fully. He seemed to be playing on a Nintendo DS, and when he realised she was watching him, he paused his game and looked up at her, offering a polite smile.

"Hello."

She returned the smile with one that was significantly warmer. "Hi," she greeted, "I'm Alice." When he didn't respond, she stuck out her hand, offering it to him in a handshake. "And you are?"

The male hesitated, before eventually putting his DS down and deciding to stand himself and take Alice's hand in the handshake, startling her slightly. "Alex," he told her.

"Nice to meet you, Alex." She pulled her hand out of the handshake. "Andy didn't tell me anything about you arriving – are you new?" She didn't know whether to assume he was some sort of new exchange student, or whether his stay was temporary.

He gave an awkward shrug in response to the question. "Kind of…?" He didn't know how much he was allowed to disclose.

Alice was tempted to purse her lips at that. This was a guy living with Andrew, and he was "kind of" new? Yet, she hadn't heard anything about him, and from the way he seemed to be really into playing on that portable game console of his she was assuming he was also kind of lonely.

"Then maybe we should show you around!" she offered, a bright smile growing on her face. "I mean, if you don't know how long you're going to be here, you should at least know all the hotspots and best places to head to – just in case."

Alex blinked at that. He hadn't expected her to be so nice to him, considering this was one of Andrew's friends (and from the vibes he got from Andrew, he was getting the feeling he wasn't wanted), and now she was offering to spend an afternoon with him?

Before he could answer, Andrew came bundling down the stairs. "Hey, Al, I'm—" He stopped short when he realised she and Alex were in the middle of something. His brows furrowed. "Alice, what are you doing?" he demanded, going from looking at her in confusion to shooting glares at Alex.

Alice didn't miss the looks he sent them both, but decided to ignore them in favour of trying to be nice. "Well, Alex here is new, and since you didn't tell me  _anything_  about him, or tell him anything about where you live, he'll be hanging out with us this afternoon."

Andrew's jaw dropped as he looked between the two, not quite comprehending. "… _What_?"


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, the inspiration for this hit me like a brick and I have been zooming through the past couple of chapters! I actually finished this last week, but I needed to do some checking over and stuff because I got it out so fast, and I wanted to wait a bit and get started on the next chapter to make sure this flowed - after all, there's nothing worse than pumping out a chapter and realising it doesn't work. But I hope this flows with you guys!
> 
> Anyway, read on and I hope you enjoy!

Andrew scowled deeply as he stormed out of the elevator, ignoring the bewildered agents that parted the way for the furious teenager. Honestly, he couldn't care less what people thought about him right then.

Alice had, somehow, managed to persuade (read: force) Andrew into letting Alex come along with them for the day. The day that he'd intended to spend with her  _alone_  before they went back to school being constantly surrounded by friends and weirdos. And as if it wasn't bad enough that the guy was tagging along – Alice decided to plan their day around  _him_ , showing  _him_  all the different places and talking to  _him_  about what he was interested in and what he wanted to do whilst he was there. She barely spoke a word to Andrew himself, other than to ask his opinion on anything.

And the entire time, the  _entire time_ , there was a black sedan "stalking" them.

That day was officially the most  _ridiculous_  day he had spent out with Alice. And this time, he hadn't even done anything  _wrong_.

Multiple heads turned to watch Andrew as he stormed into the bullpen of the MCRT, and even Tony and Ziva couldn't help poking their heads over their computers to see what would happen. After all, it had been a while since Andrew had thrown a tantrum.

The teen didn't even hesitate to see whether his sister was sat beside Gibbs desk drawing when he slammed his hands on the older man's desk, glaring at him. Gibbs barely even flinched, not looking up from the paperwork in front of him. The other three agents, however, jumped – and Jessica practically leapt sky-high.

"Get. Him. Out," he ground out through gritted teeth. That was the moment that Gibbs decided to look up, peering at Andrew over his glasses.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Get him  _out_!" Andrew repeated, raising his voice and attracting the attentions of the people in surrounding bullpens. "Get him out of our  _house_! Get him out of our  _lives_!"

"Get who out?" Gibbs asked calmly.

"You know exactly who I mean! That  _asshole_  who's been sharing my room!"

Gibbs plucked his glasses off his nose and placed them on the pile of paperwork in front f him. "What have I said about using that language?"

"I'm gonna use it for people who deserve it," Andrew hissed in response, earning a  _look_  from Gibbs. "And this is  _your_  fault, anyway! Alice didn't need to come over! I didn't need to go out!" His eyes narrowed. "Alex doesn't even need to stay at  _ours_  for witness protection! This is such  _bullshit_!"

"Language!"

Andrew continued on his rant, ignoring Gibbs. "And that asshole comes along, convinces my girlfriend he's a  _good guy_ , and manages to convince her to take him on a grand tour around our neighbourhood whilst she's with her  _boyfriend_! He's a sneaky, conniving asshole!" He slammed his hands down on the table to emphasise his point. "How can you not even  _see_?!"

Tony opened his mouth to say something witty, but a look from Ziva made him shut his mouth immediately.

"You're not even doing the case, you're doing  _paperwork_!" He picked up some of Gibbs' stack and slammed it down on the desk repeatedly before throwing it onto the floor in anger. "That ass has suspicious scars and bruises, as well as muscles that are  _way too defined for a teenager_ , and you're not even gonna ask him about it?! You're just gonna do paperwork and wait a little while until something new comes up?!"

The fact that Gibbs looked calm again frustrated Andrew, though it was the next thing that Gibbs said that made him realise he wasn't actually calm, but seething with cold anger.

"Those were adoption papers."

Andrew froze, all of his anger melting out of him in that moment. Glancing down at the papers spread across the floor, he spotted the words " _Adoption_ " printed on one of them. His face blanched.

"Gibbs… G-Gibbs, I—" He started, his eyes wide with apology, but the agent held up a hand to tell him to keep quiet.

"Stay in your room for the rest of the day. It's what you wanted, and it's what you're getting. I don't want to see you until dinner."

Andrew's mouth opened and closed a few times, but no sound came out, and the teen eventually turned and walked out of the bullpen, heading straight for the elevator.

As soon as Andrew was out of the bullpen, Gibbs leaned back and hit his fist on the dividing wall between their bullpen and the next. There was a yelp from the other side, and a moment later a head with a mop of fair hair peeked over the bullpen wall.

"Follow him home. Those agents will be wondering where you are," he ordered, before glancing down at the little redheaded girl beside him. "And take Jessica with you."

The little girl looked up at Gibbs with wide eyes, but began to pack her things away, doing as she was told. Within minutes, she was ready to go, and Alex was just reaching the elevator when Gibbs called out:

"And learn to get along with him! I can't be dealing with this when I've got a case!"

Alex nodded quickly, before leading Jessica into the now open elevator and proceeding to leave the building.

As soon as they had disappeared, Gibbs looked to his (shocked) agents.

"Are you going to tell Andrew those adoption papers were the ones the Pleasures were filling out for Alex before they came to D.C.?" McGee asked hesitantly. At the look on the older man's face, he safely concluded that the answer to his question was, 'No'.

"Get back to work finding what's on that flash drive," Gibbs told the younger agent, who nodded quickly, going back to whatever password decoding programme was running on his computer at that moment in time.

"DiNozzo, anything more on the Petty Officer?"

"No, boss." At the look on Gibbs' face, he quickly stood. "But, as I can't find any more information on any of the databases pertaining to him, I shall go and ask someone in person. And Ziva shall accompany me!"

"Gibbs will need someone to pick up and reorder those papers so that he can continue looking through Alex's history," Ziva argued.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Picking up those papers takes all of five seconds, and Gibbs can reorder himself." His eyes widened when he realised what he said, and he rushed to correct it. "I mean to say, you're not  _incompetent_  of doing your own work, boss."

"Shut up and leave," Gibbs sighed, running a hand over his face. All three agents paused at the sign of fatigue on the older man's face – a sign they were not used to seeing at all. When Gibbs realised they weren't moving, he barked, "DiNozzo!"

"Leaving now, boss!"

"David, go with him!"

"Yes, Gibbs." The only female member of the teen quickly began to grab her coat and bag, dashing off to the elevator in an attempt to beat Tony – a smirk appeared on her face when she "won".

"This wasn't even a competition!" Tony began to argue as the elevator doors shut.

For a few moments, there was silence in the bullpen, bar McGee typing away at his computer. But one thing kept running through Gibbs mind as he stared at the papers on the floor. Something that didn't add up.

Rising quickly, he announced, "I need coffee," before walking briskly out of the bullpen, moving to take the stairs down instead of waiting for the elevator car to return.

Andrew was right. Those bruises  _weren't_  nothing if a high school football player thought something was off.

He was going to see a certain doctor about what she'd seen.

* * *

Alex was lucky that Gibbs made a habit of not locking the front door during the day (only at night, when it  _definitely_  wasn't safe); Andrew seemed to pick up on the habit himself, and so the door was left unlocked for himself and Jessica to return to the house.

As soon as they got back to the house, Jessica had retreated to her room, shutting her door (and possibly blockading it – Alex knew he would if he was in her position). The blonde teen stood in the hallway for a few moments, trying to think of what to do. He could sit in the lounge on his DS for the rest of the evening, until Gibbs got back and he deemed it safe to return to his room… or he could do as the man had told him and attempt to befriend him.

Somehow, he felt as if, even though the first idea was safer, the second would probably be more beneficial for them both.

Making his decision, Alex began to climb the stairs, making his way up to Andrew's room. As soon as he reached the door, he took a deep breath, before knocking. There was a brief moment of silence, before Andrew opened the door, looking slightly confused as to who would be knocking on his door, and then angry as he realised who it was and moved to slam the door shut.

Alex quickly planted his foot in the doorway, stopping it from closing (though it hurt a fair bit).

Andrew growled, but didn't make any further attempt to slam the door shut. "What do you want?"

"To get along."

"Well that's a  _stupid_  request."

Alex pursed his lips. He knew speaking to the guy would be hard, but not  _this_  difficult. "Look, I know you don't like me—"

"No shit."

"—But your… Gibbs wants us to get along so that he can focus on solving this case. And he can't work when you—we're constantly at each other's throats." Alex had to constantly correct himself to make sure he wasn't framing himself as the victim, but he was pretty sure he  _was_  the victim.

Andrew glared at him. "And why should I try to befriend  _you_? I can't even  _trust_  you."

Alex had to admit, he was a little stung by that. "And why is that?"

Andrew scoffed. "What, you haven't looked in the mirror recently? You just  _scream_  untrustworthy. You give off a weird aura that I'm surprised  _anyone_  can tolerate, let alone my  _girlfriend_. You were found in someone's closet with  _blood on you_. You're probably a  _danger_."

"And yet, you're still here?" Alex was getting tired of this guy's behaviour now. Though part of him couldn't help feeling as if Andrew was somehow getting quiet a lot right about him.

"There are agents outside. That's literally all that's keeping us alive right now."

"Don't you think you're just as much of a danger?"

That made Andrew stop. "…What?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "Everyone at least  _heard_ your tantrum today. It was pretty violent. What if you'd hit someone? What if you'd had a knife? Having a bad temper isn't a good thing."

Andrew's face reddened, though whether it was due to embarrassment or anger, Alex didn't quite know. All he knew was that he had just struck some chords right then. "No one said you could psychoanalyse me. Quit it."

Alex frowned. "Who said I'm psychoanalysing you?"

"Stop saying those things about me."

"You don't want to hear what other people think of you?"

"Those things don't matter."

"They clearly do right now."

If possible, Andrew's face got redder.

Alex sighed. "Look, I'm not… I'm not trying to hurt you or anything, alright? I… apparently I'm a witness in an investigation, I was seen by whoever the killer was, and somehow I got out of it alive but with no memory of what happened. That's the only reason why I'm here. I promise I'm not trying to endanger you."

Andrew's face was still fairly red, but he had his lips pursed and was glancing off to the side, not looking Alex in the eye.

"I'm trying to keep my own foster family safe by keeping them out of this until everything's solved."

Andrew glanced up at that. He understood the need to keep family safe, even if it was foster family and not biological family. He would do whatever it took to keep his little sister safe – he was all she had now, and he wasn't going to let that get taken away from her. Even if it meant getting in a lot of trouble and beating up a few bullies (who were technically younger than him, but he didn't let his family take crap from anyone).

Alex took Andrew actually looking up at him as a sign that maybe, just maybe, the boy might be warming up to him the tiniest bit. Though, it still didn't seem to be enough, considering he still hadn't opened the door for Alex or let him in.

"Look, I'll make you a deal," Alex offered, and Andrew's eyebrows rose at that. "I… will let you keep an eye on me, keep out of your way as much as possible and make sure that I'm not annoying you and your friends or whatever… but only if you let me stick with you. I'll hang on the fringes, I promise, but… I don't want to be left alone."

Alex didn't want to admit it, but he hated being left alone in the house, even if it was with Jessica. It was practically silent when it was the two of them, and considering he wasn't much of a talker anyway it just made it harder for him to keep his mind off…  _things_. He was so used to having a chatterbox around – Tom back at Brookland, and Sabina when he moved here – that being the main talker just didn't feel right to him.

Andrew seemed to consider that. Keep an eye on Alex in exchange for not leaving him alone? Granted, he didn't really want Alex around – he was a bit of a nuisance (even if he hadn't done anything) but at the same time… he didn't trust him. And if he didn't trust him, why would he leave him around his sister when anything could happen? Really, it was safer for him to keep Alex around – keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and all that. He hated to admit it, but Alex's idea was a good one.

Reluctantly, he stepped back and pulled the door open – enough so that Alex could just about enter the room. "Fine," he ground out finally. "But don't talk. Your voice is irritating."

"Alright."

"And keep to yourself. My stuff is  _my stuff_ , I don't want you snooping around."

Alex gave a single nod.

"And Alice is off limits."

Alex's eyebrows rose at that. He wouldn't have gone for Alice anyway – he understood boundaries when it came to being with another guy's girlfriend – and besides, she wasn't really his type. But, either way, he nodded.

Andrew stared at him for a few moments, appearing to analyse him, before going back to laying on his bed and playing on his iPad. "Don't bug me until dinner," he said simply – his way of saying that Alex could do what he wanted, as long as it didn't involve him.

Alex couldn't help the small smile that formed on his face. It wasn't acceptance, but it was  _close_ , he supposed.

* * *

Doctors didn't get long breaks. It was a well-known fact in the medical world – and when they did get breaks, they treasured them and didn't particularly like people interrupting them.

Like Doctor Martins. Right then she was feeling at peace, enjoying a cheap, hospital-level sandwich whilst she listened to some jazz with her earphones in. No one bothered her when she was like this – other residents understood the need to spend time alone, and the interns didn't bother doctors who appeared to be in their own little zone.

In fact, she didn't expect to be disturbed at all… until she realised the seat opposite her at the table was taken. Glancing up from her food, she was surprised to see Special Agent Gibbs sat there, watching her. She waited for him to attempt to say something, but when he didn't even open his mouth to talk, she decided to take the first step and take out her earphones.

"Special Agent Gibbs," she greeted, though she sounded less than pleased. "To what do I owe this visit."

The man placed a sheet of paper on the table, face up. The doctor glanced down and her eyebrows rose when she realised it was an outline of a body. A body map.

"I need this filled out," he said. "Every blemish you saw on Alex's body, with estimates of the age."

"That's confidential information between myself and my patient," she argued, frowning. "I'm not at liberty to give you that information."

"Not even for someone who could be a suspect in a case?"

The doctor's eyes widened dramatically. "Suspect? He's a  _kid_. If anything, he's a possible victim of  _abuse_."

"I'd be able to prove all that with the body map."

"No. This goes against my ethical code." She put her sandwich down, frowning deeply at the man. "I can't give you any hard information about the bruises – mainly because I now know that even though he's under your protection, you're not his legal guardian. And doctor-patient confidentiality is still a thing, even with children and teenagers." She placed one earphone back in her ear. "I'm sorry, Agent Gibbs, but I can't give you that on paper."

Gibbs continued to stare at her, knowing that she was implying something.

"I can, however, tell you that a lot of the bruises are from within the last few months, possibly the last year. He also has burn scar tissue. And, again, the bullet wound." Her eyes narrowed. "Personally, I'm surprised you didn't come back to me about this sooner."

"I needed evidence."

"I'm legally not allowed to provide it."

Annoyance flashed in Gibbs' eyes.

"Don't try to push me, Agent Gibbs. I stand by my word. I'm not providing you with that information by hard copy, because I could get sued and lose my job. I've given you what you need. I can't give you any more." She gave him a hard look. "What spurred you to finally ask about it anyway?"

Gibbs stood from the table, picking up the unfilled body map and folding it, tucking it into his pocket. "Something Andrew said."

"So you're going to investigate a child… based on the opinions of another child?"

"Apparently it's just as good as going off the opinions of a doctor."

The woman narrowed her eyes at him. "Thanks for disturbing my break, Agent Gibbs, but I'm afraid I have two minutes and I'd like to enjoy my sandwich."

Gibbs nodded, turning and heading away from her and raising a single hand in farewell.

Maybe he hadn't managed to get hard copies of the evidence, but a doctor's work about scars and bruises? That sort of stuff couldn't be covered up, and might be enough to do some more investigating.

Maybe this Alex kid was more than they thought he was. Either that, or he'd been a whole lot… and he wasn't safe.


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys! I hope you're all doing well! I have been... slightly stressed with uni work recently, so I decided to destress by pumping out another chapter for you guys that you'll hopefully enjoy! The story is moving slowly, but I'm hoping to reach the main action part within the next few chapters (if all goes to plan and the storyline decides to stay similar to the original). I really hope you guys are enjoying the story!

Tony sighed as he climbed out of the car, the two of them (himself and Ziva) finally pulling up to their destination.

Tasked with finding out more about the Petty Officer, the two of them headed to the last known place of work the man was seen at – the military base in Quantico. Reaching the area, there didn't appear to be many individuals around; for the time of day, it was fairly quiet, with no one out doing exercises or living their military lives out in the sun (the second part was exactly what Tony had said as they walked around, looking for their destination).

Reaching their first stop on what was probably a list of different places to visit, Tony stepped up to the front door and knocked.

The two waited only a few moments, before a young woman arrived at the door, looking confused. "Uh… hi?" she asked.

Tony and Ziva each raised a single eyebrow. The young woman was apparently only in a night gown, belt loosely tied at the waist and her hair tied up into a messy bun. There weren't even slippers on her feet.

Noticing their scrutinising looks, she folded her arms across her chest in an effort to keep the gown held more tightly around herself. "Is there something that you want?" she asked. "We don't accept all those door-to-door sales…"

Ziva was the first to pull out her badge, flashing it to the young woman. "Agents David and DiNozzo, NCIS," she introduced them both. "Does this house happen to be registered under Petty Officer Peter Marks?"

The girl's brows furrowed. "Yes…"

"We'd like to ask you a few questions about Petty Officer Marks," Tony said, a grim expression on his face as he tucked his badge back into his inner pocket.

"May we come in?" Ziva asked.

The woman glanced back into the house, seemingly thinking about it, before nodding to the two agents. "Sure, come in." She stepped aside, allowing them both in before shutting the door behind them. "Uh, lounge is the first room on the right."

The two agents nodded as they headed through, the young woman following behind them quietly. Once they were seated in the lounge, on the only two-seated couch in the room, the girl awkwardly sat opposite them on one of the armchairs.

"So… what's this about Peter…?" she asked slowly, looking between the two agents.

Tony pulled out a notebook as Ziva began to speak. "What is your relation to the Petty Officer?" she asked.

"We're… friends," the young woman answered. "We worked together, got close, dated a couple of times, but he broke it off every time." She shrugged a little. "It sucked every time, but we're still friends. He lets me house-share with him and a couple of others."

Tony's eyebrows rose at that. "Others?"

"Yeah – Williams and Richards." Her eyes widened slightly. "Oh, forgot to mention: I'm Petty Officer Tracy Green."

Tony nodded and noted this down.

"And where are the others?" Ziva asked, raising an eyebrow. Surely this young woman couldn't have been home alone?

"As far as I know, Williams is upstairs," she answered, her head nodding in the direction of the staircase. "He said he was going to use his time off to play some video games. Richards went out for a run earlier on, but he's not back yet."

"And you?" Tony asked, earning himself a glare from Ziva. "What are you going on your time off?"

"Sleeping," Tracy replied bluntly.

"When was the last time you saw Petty Officer Marks?" Ziva asked, changing the subject and forging Tony back on track.

The young Petty Officer sitting opposite them had to think about that for a moment. "I… think it was sometime last week?" she offered. "He said he wanted to get away for a little while whilst he was on leave, but not go too far. Apparently his family helped him get a place somewhere off-base – I've never been there before, personally, but I guess I believe him. Either way, he said he was going to be away for a couple of weeks to get a breather. I'm not expecting him back until next week at the earliest." Her brows furrowed. "Why the questions about Peter, though? Has something happened?"

Ziva hesitated for a moment. "A couple of days ago, Petty Officer Marks was found murdered in his off-base home."

The girl's eyes bugged out as she slapped her hands over her mouth in shock. "What?" she breathed, disbelieving.

"Wait, wait, Peter's  _dead_?!"

The two agents' heads turned to see a young man – probably around the same age as the woman sitting opposite them, dark-skinned with close-cropped hair – standing at the doorway to the lounge. His hands clutched to the doorframe tightly, his eyes wide.

Ziva gave a slow nod. "Yes."

"How?  _Why?_ "

"I'm guessing you're Petty Officer Williams?" Tony asked, though Ziva responded to that for the standing male by stamping on Tony's foot.

"He was found shot in his lounge," she informed the two. "As for the 'why', that is something we are attempting to find out, which is why we are here." She looked between the two young individuals. "If you could provide us with as much information about the Petty Officer as possible, that would be helpful."

"Anything like what he's like, what he did, who he spoke to…" Tony trailed off.

The Petty Officers shared a look – one that Ziva didn't quite catch – before Williams moved to join the group, sitting on the arm of Green's armchair.

"What would you like to know?" he asked, a determined expression on his features.

* * *

When Gibbs returned to the house that evening – mainly to prepare dinner for the kids and then head straight back to the office – he had to admit that he was  _more_  than surprised at what he heard.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The house was practically silent. There was no noise – no yelling, no arguing, no Andrew throwing tantrums or getting angry for no specific reason. It was almost scary.

The only thing that could've been scarier than that would've been Andrew and Alex getting along and being like friends. Of course, that couldn't happen, right?

At dinner, he was proven oh so wrong.

Andrew didn't even so much as spare a look in Alex's direction, let alone send him a dirty look. Dinner was a whole lot more peaceful than the previous couple of days, and he got the feeling that he could actually head back into the office without a headache. This was… almost too good to be true.

Or maybe he could take this chance and get everyone to have an early night and start afresh the next day. After all, he wanted to take advantage of this peace whilst he could.

Tony didn't quite seem to understand when he picked up the phone.

" _You want us… to go home… early…? But we've barely started the case! And Ziva and I need—_ "

"Go home. We start early tomorrow." Gibbs ended the call without any further argument. He was pretty sure the other two would also be just as confused about going home early, but they wouldn't argue – it was an early night off.

Besides, Gibbs had a boat waiting in the basement for him. A new project. One that he wanted to keep this time.

Putting his phone down, the man stood from his armchair in the lounge and moved out into the hallway, heading for the basement. Just as he reached the doorway, however, he changed his mind and decided to head upstairs to check on the kids – at least make sure Andrew and Alex weren't attempting to kill each other behind his back instead of to his face.

Heading to Jessica's door first, he knocked on it gently, waiting to see whether he would get a reply. When he got none, he popped his head in, to find that the little girl was at her desk, sketching away with a pair of earphones in and connected to an iPod. He smiled slightly. Only eight years old and she was practically behaving like someone twice her age. He retreated from the room and shut the door quietly, deciding to go and check on the two boys.

Upon popping his head into Andrew's room he found that they were pretty much just as content – Andrew was on the iPad, as usual, and Alex was on his Nintendo DS. The boys were pretty much silent, earphones in and on complete opposite sides of the room to each other. Probably not exactly what Gibbs wanted when he'd told them to get along, but at least they weren't fighting. That was a step in the right direction.

Andrew was the first to notice Gibbs stood there, and he pulled out an earphone, lowering the iPad from his face. "Yes, Gibbs?" he asked, looking confused.

"Just came to check up on you," Gibbs responded, a slight smile on his face. "Everything alright?"

Andrew nodded. "Aren't you heading back to the office?" he asked with a frown. "I thought you had more work to do?"

"It's too late to head back," Gibbs responded, leaning on the doorframe. "Needed a rest."

Andrew pursed his lips, seeming to think about Gibbs' claim, before asking, "Are you finally going to sleep in your own bed tonight?"

The look on Gibbs' face showed that he knew Andrew was jabbing at him childishly, causing the teen to only respond to the look with a slight grin.

"It's a genuine question."

"Are you still going out tomorrow?"

Andrew appeared slightly disgruntled that Gibbs had responded to his teasing with a question, but decided to answer it anyway, his eyes glancing over to Alex (who he could guess was listening, even with earphones in) before back at his foster father. "Yeah, I am…" he replied slowly, pursing his lips and gritting his teeth before continuing to say the next thing, "and Alex is coming with."

Gibbs was pretty sure his eyebrows shot up at that moment. Of all the things he expected, it clearly wasn't that Alex would be heading out with Andrew to the park with his friends for a catch up before school started – if anything, he thought he would have to convince the teen to take the other boy out with him so that Jessica could spend some time with her own friends (or rather,  _friend_ , since she was so solitary) and he didn't have to stay in witness protection with just agents the whole day. "Are you sure?" he asked, seriously wondering what was going on.

Andrew shrugged before glancing over at Alex, noticing how this time the other boy was watching him. "Yeah, I guess I'm sure." He still didn't trust Alex – and he made that clear in the expression on his face as he looked at the other boy, but he was willing to let him hang out with his friends… if only to keep an eye on him.

Gibbs' eyes narrowed slightly at the look the boys shared, wondering whether Andrew  _really_  wanted Alex to go along with him, but in the end decided to drop it. Something was going on, and he would find out when he needed to. Hopefully before it was too late.

"Alright, I'll be in the basement," the older man announced, turning to leave the two alone when Andrew spoke up.

"Can we work a bit on my project at the end of the week?" he asked. The look on his face was considerably more hopeful than he had when Gibbs first entered the room, and the man smiled. That project was Andrew's pride and joy – it wasn't due into school for at least another year (how his teacher had come up with a deadline like that, Gibbs had no idea) but the teen was excited to start on it, and was already journaling everything that went on in his life. Heck, he was sure that this whole thing about Alex was already in there.

"Sure, if we're both free." He resisted the urge to chuckle at the look of despair on Andrew's face, because he understood – by them  _both_  being free, Gibbs meant that only if he finished the case… and Andrew  _wasn't_  getting ready for school. And they both knew that Gibbs had a rule about getting ready for school on the last night of the weekend.

"We'll talk about it later, alright?" The man moved to head off again. "I'll be down in the basement if you need me."

Once Gibbs had left, Alex furrowed his brows at Andrew, looking very confused. "What's in the basement…?" he asked, not sure whether it was something he should be concerned about or not.

Andrew just smirked ever so slightly as he returned to focusing on the iPad in front of him. "A boat."

Alex blinked for a few moments, not quite comprehending what he'd just been told.

"A…  _boat_?"

* * *

" _Alex, come on!"_

_The blonde blinked as he looked around himself. He was… in a room of some kind. A large room. Open-plan. It looked more like a hallway with seating if he was honest, maybe a bit more square-shaped than rectangular… but the doors leading off the room he was standing him just confirmed that._

_When he noticed the semi-circular desk with the suited man standing behind it he concluded that it had to be a hotel lobby of some sort. Though… why any reception would have a sports theme, Alex had no idea._

" _This is ridiculous."_

_He knew it was him talking – he recognised his own voice – but he couldn't control it. Had this happened before? What was going on?_

_Turning (again, involuntarily) towards what he assumed was the entrance to the hotel reception, Alex spotted a familiar girl – or rather, young woman – standing by the doors, her dark hair tied up into a messy bun but somehow still managing to fit in with the long baggy t-shirt and leggings she was wearing. There was a smile spread across her freckled face._

" _You look fine," she responded, giving him a once over. He looked down at himself._

_He was in a dark t-shirt and khaki shorts with more pockets than he could count. On his feet he wore a pair of vans that he recognised from… a little while back, though it occurred to him that his toes had now reached the front and it wouldn't be long before the shoes became a tight squeeze. What a shame. He'd liked these ones._

" _I look like an upper-class Brit on holiday," he deadpanned. "Oh wait, I am one."_

" _If you're trying to imply that you look like a git, you're not wrong. You're just… a good-looking git."_

" _Wow, thanks."_

" _You are very welcome." She approached him and tugged on his arm, trying to pull him towards the door. "Now come on – we're going to be late! Mum needed us to be in the car five minutes ago! We're going to get caught in traffic at this rate, and then we won't get to go shopping!"_

_He raised an eyebrow at her, though he stumbled after her obediently. "Who said I wanted to go shopping?"_

" _Your outdated wardrobe. Now come on!"_

_He feigned irritation as he was dragged out of the building, though as they passed through the now open doorway, something caught his eye._

_A man – not so unusual – in black from his hat to his polished black suit and shoes – a bit more unusual, considering it was pretty hot that day – stood on the corner, leaning on the wall – very unusual, since you wouldn't want to lean on the wall in a suit as polished as that. At least, that was his own opinion._

_He also spotted something tucked in at the man's waist, just about concealed underneath the suit blazer he wore. He narrowed his eyes to get a better look. Was that—_

Alex gasped as he shot upright, his t-shirt clinging to his chest and his hair all over the place. He could feel his heart beating erratically in his chest and he took deep breaths in an attempt to calm down before he did something stupid like wake Andrew up with something akin to a panic attack.

Honestly, he didn't have much of an idea why he'd started panicking at the dream. It seemed… it seemed like a normal dream. Like a memory of something that happened – an event that had occurred in his past. And from the way the girl – Sabina – looked…

Wait.

Alex froze, his eyes wide as he realised what exactly he had been dreaming about, what his brain was playing back to him.

That… that was one of the days he had forgotten, before the… well, whatever happened that landed him in hospital. His memory was returning to him.

He wasn't sure whether he liked it or not.

Looking over towards where Andrew's alarm stood, he realised the clock read 4am. He could already see that the sky was slowly getting lighter, and he pursed his lips. It wasn't that he wasn't sure whether he would be able to get back to sleep… it was more that he was certain that it wouldn't happen unless he told Gibbs about it. And, looking at the time, he doubted the man would be up and alert enough to listen to him explain everything that he could remember.

Unzipping the sleeping bag and pulling himself out, he glanced around the dimly-lit room for a few moments before his eyes landed on Andrew's iPad, and an idea came to mind. It probably wasn't a great idea, considering Andrew would likely murder him on the spot for even thinking about touching the device, but it would be the best way to get the information to Gibbs without waking him up.

Picking up the tablet, he paused for a second, trying to come up with an idea for the password. From what he could recall, Andrew was the same age as him…

_1997_.

He mentally cursed when that came up as wrong. Though, at least it meant he wasn't stupid enough to use his own birth year as his password.

Although…

_2003_. The iPad unlocked.

Alex's lips quirked up into a slight smile. He was clearly dumb enough to use his sister's birth year.

He had to blink a couple of times for his eyes to get used to the bright screen shining in his face, before scrolling along to find the in-built notepad. Pressing on it, he winced when the device made a loud clicking sound. His eyes widened when he heard Andrew shift in bed, mumbling, before settling down again.

Alex's eyes quickly darted over the screen before he found the function to mute the iPad, and as soon as that was done he took a deep breath, closing his eyes momentarily, before he moved to start typing what he could remember.


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Gosh, I'm really getting these chapters out faster than I expected - definitely faster than I used to, anyway. I guess it's following my aim of finishing this rewrite by the summer? Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying it so far - I know I'm enjoying rewriting it. Part of me feels kind of bad that Jessica isn't being involved as much, but she wasn't in the original, considering it was based a lot on Andrew and Alex's relationship. I would like to involve her some more though...
> 
> Anyways, enough of my rambling; read on, and I hope you enjoy!

Gibbs had a frown on his face and an iPad in his hands as he walked into the bullpen – something that neither Tony nor Ziva missed and began to panic about.

Whenever Gibbs had a frown on his face, he knew there was something seriously wrong.

The Senior Supervisory Agent paused when he realised that the bullpen was missing one individual. "Where's McGee?" he demanded.

"He is down with Abby," Ziva answered quickly, not wanting to incur Gibbs' wrath. "He managed to get into the flash drive just as you called to tell us to go home, but he came in to have a look at the files this morning and found that many of them had been redacted multiple times over. He is currently trying to go through the files with Abby to obtain the information… as well as contact the original source of the files."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose at that. "And the original source?"

"…He is suggesting the CIA."

Gibbs' expression morphed into a scowl. Whenever the CIA got involved, it was never good… "DiNozzo, get in contact with the Petty Officer's family and find out as much as you can about him from them. David, with me." He was just about to turn and head out of the bullpen, he paused and turned back, almost causing Ziva to bump into him. "What happened yesterday with the interviews?"

Tony quickly pulled a notepad out of one of his desk drawers, quickly flipping a couple of pages before stopping. "There's… a lot about the Petty Officer that we need to look into. Met Petty Officers Green and Williams, and spoke with them about Marks. Apparently he lets them rent a room each at his place in Quantico – they all get along, but Marks and Richards tended to keep to themselves, in particular Richards. Marks had rooms off limits." He flipped the page over. "They knew very little about his past, other than the fact that he didn't like to talk about it and his family tended to avoid it as well. Didn't really have anything against anyone on base…" He placed the notepad down. "Other than the fact that he was kind of secretive, a pretty stand-up guy."

Gibbs glanced over at Ziva.

"None of them seemed anxious as I asked questions,  _despite_  Tony's immature questioning—"

"I was making a valid point," he interrupted, though he was silence by Gibbs' glare.

"…But," Ziva continued, once Tony had gone quiet, "there seemed to be a look that they shared once Williams joined to answer questions. Perhaps it was one of worry, perhaps it was one of curiosity." She gave a little shrug. "They do know something about Petty Officer Marks – whether or not it pertains to this case is yet to be known."

Gibbs gave a single nod, before turning and heading towards the elevator, Ziva hot on his heels. "Talk to the family, DiNozzo – I need as much information out of them as possible."

"Got it, Boss!"

"Where are we going?" Ziva asked as she joined Gibbs in the elevator, the doors sliding closed as she turned to face forwards as he was.

Gibbs simply lifted up the iPad in his hands. "Need to get this analysed."

Ziva frowned at that. "Andrew's iPad?" she asked, sounding a little confused. When Gibbs gave her a raised eyebrow, her own eyebrows rose. "Something  _on_  the iPad?"

Gibbs just gave a nod, handing the device over to Ziva for her to briefly read before taking it back, and soon enough they had reached the floor Abby was on, the two of them emerging from the metal box and entering a slightly-quieter-than-normal lab, where the dark-haired woman and field agent were stood at her desk, eyes fixed on computers.

"You found anything yet?" Abby asked, not even turning to look at McGee.

"Not yet – this is so redacted that it's going to take hours, if not  _days_ , to clear," he grumbled.

"Well you better come up with something soon, because Gibbs is here."

McGee turned with wide eyes to see Gibbs and Ziva stood not too far behind him – Gibbs with a raised eyebrow and Ziva with the smallest of smirks on her face. Before the younger agent could answer, however, Gibbs lifted the iPad.

"Analyse."

McGee frowned slightly, confused at what Gibbs was asking him. He knew the tablet was Andrew's – he had been the one to get it and give it to him – so why Gibbs was handing him the device when it didn't really pertain to the case (in his opinion) at all was befuddling (ah… he had his writer's brain on today). That was, until he took the tablet and unlocked it, revealing the message that Alex had written. Scanning the message, his eyes widened.

"This was written this morning," he said slowly, looking up at Gibbs. When he received nothing more than an expectant look, he looked back down at the iPad. "I'll get all the details he wrote and see if I can get any clues from it."

"Look at traffic cams in the area and get security footage from the hotel," Gibbs told him. McGee gave him a swift nod, before getting on with the work he had been set.

"Oh, Gibbs, Gibbs!" Abby exclaimed, turning with wide eyes. "I got back all the ballistics from the bullet and the body." Turning back to the computer, she pulled up a trajectory programme, as well as images of the bullet itself. "You guys were right – the shooter was definitely on the roof of one of the houses across the street. How they managed to get up there and balance, I have no idea, considering the houses don't exactly have flat roofs, but none of them have high enough windows or rooms to provide a landing to shoot from."

Gibbs nodded, leaning over Abby's shoulder with his eyes scanning over the screen in front of them.

"As for the bullet, it definitely came from a sniper gun. The problem is… all information that could've led us to where the bullet was purchased or what gun it could have been shot from have been wiped clean off. No trace of anything on it. Nada. It's spit-shine clean… aside from the blood from the Petty Officer," she rambled. "Basically, there's a dead end here. I can compare it with other bullets in the database, but that's going to take a  _long_  time and we have the manpower of two down here."

"Two  _very_  intelligent individuals," Gibbs corrected, leaning over and pecking Abby on the cheek. "Good job. I owe you one."

The dark-haired forensic analyst merely grinned as Gibbs and Ziva left the lab, heading back to the elevator to leave the building. At the raised eyebrow McGee gave her, she shrugged. "Take the compliment, and don't say anything."

* * *

Alex groaned as he opened his eyes, despising the sunlight shining directly onto his face. Despite it being summer – a season that he generally enjoyed for its warmth – he'd come to despise sunlight. Because of where he lay in Andrew's room, the light had a tendency to shine right onto his face in the mornings, which did a great job at waking him up but also was probably killing off any cells in his eyes because of the brightness. Placing his arm over his eyes, he managed to get a few moments of peace before the door opened.

"Get up, we're going in an hour."

"Good morning to you too," the blonde grumbled. He supposed the sunlight shining onto his face and waking him up wasn't the only reason why he seemed to be in a foul mood – after the nightmare early that morning, Alex had struggled to get back to sleep, even though he'd managed to get all of the information out and onto that iPad. In fact, he was pretty sure that dream had repeated itself over and over in his head, meaning that it was hard for him to actually settle down and get some rest without feeling paranoid.

Add that to the fact that Andrew had woken him up a couple of hours before to demand the location of his iPad and then, after reading a text message from McGee, why Alex had even thought to  _touch_  the tablet, followed by threats to not only change the password but find a way to ruin his DS if he ever touched his devices again. Alex had just turned over and attempted to go back to bed.

So the blonde felt perfectly justified in feeling sour. He was allowed to be petty and angry. He wasn't supposed to be happy all the time. That was ridiculous.

Of course, Andrew didn't see it that way.

"Being sarcastic wasn't part of the deal."

"Yeah? Well neither was waking me up at some stupid hour because you got whiny and wanted your precious iPad."

"It wasn't  _yours to touch_."

"It was the nearest thing I could find."

"What for?"

"For telling Gibbs about my nightmare."

Andrew seemed to tense at that, and Alex knew he'd touched on some sort of common ground between the two. He supposed that, as a foster kid, Andrew had many nightmares of his own, so he at least partly understood why Alex had done what he did.

There was silence for a few moments, before the brunette teen spoke up.

"Next time, turn the light on and find paper."

"You'd yell at me."

"If you told me the truth, I'd probably get it."

Alex slowly moved his arm from his eyes and frowned at Andrew, feeling incredibly confused. One moment, the boy was hostile towards him, insulting him without even thinking twice about it, and the next he seemed to be sympathising and attempting to be nice. It was all so confusing for Alex, and he didn't get why Andrew was doing this. It made no sense.

Andrew noticed the look of confusion on Alex's face and wiped any sympathy from his own quickly, putting on a scowl. "Anyway, we're still leaving in an hour. We've got to take Jess to get friend's before meeting the others." He didn't even wait for Alex to make a comment before turning on his heel and leaving the room abruptly, leaving Alex to work out what he needed to do next.

The fair-haired male sighed as he sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Well, he supposed he had no choice but to get up now.

* * *

Ziva's eyes scanned their surroundings as they pulled up beside the large building.

She supposed the area looked clean. Relatively modern – not old or run down, but not brand-spinking (or was it brand- _spanking?_ ) new either. Just enough for it to seem clean and welcoming enough for the guests to arrive without being turned away by some sort of smell.

Glancing over at Gibbs, her eyebrows furrowed. "This is the place?" she asked curiously.

Gibbs gave a single nod. "Hampton Inn."

The two sat there in silence for a moment before both climbing out of the car, taking a better look at the surroundings.

As Ziva had been thinking, the place was fairly clean. The hotel outer walls were made up of a brick red and a plain beige, there was some sort of metallic overhang to shelter the entrance, and to the right (as you made to enter the building) there appeared to be some sort of parking lot under the hotel itself. All in all, a reasonable place to stay, and considering it was also a conference centre it likely had the appropriate facilities for meetings and large formal gatherings.

Ziva moved towards the wall that bordered the far side of the parking lot – the place that Alex had mentioned in his written memory. As she passed the parking lot entrance, she glanced down into it. "Perhaps the man Alex had seen emerged from the parking lot and was waiting for someone?" she suggested, glancing back at Gibbs.

Gibbs furrowed his brows. "Anything there to suggest a  _suspicious_  man had been standing there within the last week?" he questioned. The woman pursed her lips.

"There is no evidence on the ground, if that is what you are asking," she pointed out. "It has been cleaned recently, I am assuming. Any trash would have been picked up…" Her voice trailed off when she realised something was etched into the brickwork, and she squinted, moving closer to get a better look at it.

Before Gibbs could ask what she was doing, a familiar individual emerged from the hotel. Sabina Pleasure stumbled to a stop when she recognised the older man standing in front of the hotel.

"Agent… Gibbs…?" she asked, appearing very confused. Noticing the female agent off to her left, her brows furrowed. "Is there a reason you're here? Is it to do with the case?"

Gibbs gave a single nod, realising that this was probably the only chance he was going to get to do what he did next.

"How about we head inside, take a seat? I have more questions for you."

* * *

Alex pulled down the sleeves of his hoodie nervously, tugging at the ends. Despite it being a warm and sunny day, he hadn't exactly wanted to "show off" anything… and he himself was feeling off to the point that he was actually cold.

As soon as he'd decided to get up and got in the shower, he'd had another flashback and promptly had a panic attack. This one had been more vivid, following on from where the previous one had ended, and though he remembered some details of what had happened the days before he'd woken up in hospital… he still could not recognise or even lock on to the face of the man who had been following him.

In fact, all he'd remembered of the man was somehow finding a note addressed to himself and him having to run as soon as the man had appeared later on in the day – he didn't know  _where_  the man had reappeared; just that he'd popped up and made him run from Sabina and Liz whilst they were out.

And yet, the man himself still shook Alex to the core… like there was something wrong with his presence. Alex couldn't be around him, and didn't  _want_  to remember him. And there had to be a good reason for it.

Considering his past, there probably was a  _very_  good reason for it.

"Alex?"

The blonde looked up sharply to see Alice staring at him, concern clear in her eyes. She seemed to wait a couple of beats before asking him, "Are you alright?"

Alex forced a smile onto his face before answering. "Yeah… just a little homesick, is all." Which he kind of was. The ache in his heart told him that he definitely missed part of his  _original_ home, but he was also missing his foster family and felt a  _little_  guilty that he'd gone ahead and ruined the holiday Sabina had planned for them both before school started up again.

Alice gave him a saddened smile in response. "Hopefully you'll get to see them again soon," she told him.

"Yeah, by the end of this week," Andrew grumbled, earning himself a short glare from Alice.

"So, what brought you here?" The asker of the question was a petite girl with glasses sat on her freckled nose, a book opened on her lap. Her eyes, however, were focused on Alex, and he couldn't help but feel unnerved slightly by the intensity of her gaze.

"Holiday," the blonde replied, which wasn't exactly a lie. It was a holiday that originally brought him to Washington D.C., though it wasn't exactly the holiday that was keeping him there at that moment.

"So… how do you know Andrew?" she asked, her brows furrowing.

"Gibbs' work," Andrew answered for Alex from where he was laying back on the grass, his arms reaching out to pull Alice down so that she lay beside him. The action prompted a laugh from the girl, and Alex could only feel a pang of pain – he remembered the times when he could do that with Sabina, or even when Tom would jokingly shove him down onto the grass for no reason other than the fact that he seemed to get amused by the fact that Alex would likely get lightly scolded by Jack for getting grass in his hair and grass stains on his clothes. The idiot.

He was brought back into the present when he heard the dark-haired guy lying on the ground beside the bespectacled girl ask the round-faced black girl: "So who are you today?"

The dark-skinned girl looked up from where she had been sketching in a notebook and blew a flop of straightened purple hair out of her face. "I'm thinking of changing my name to  _Ayesha_ ," she said simply.

"Are two names not enough for you?" the male quipped back.

"Not when I don't like them and my parents can't decide on what to call me on a day-to-day basis. I'll give them a name to call me and they're going to accept it."

"They're not going to accept it."

"I'm going to  _make them_."

"Ayesha doesn't suit you," a boy commented casually from outside the circle of friends, seemingly working on some sort of device with a small screwdriver.

The girl turned to him with narrowed eyes. "Oh please – you said the same thing about my hair, but you totally  _love it_."

"Purple looks unnatural on you," he responded. He looked up and almost jumped when he realised she was glaring at him. "I'm only stating my opinion! It's nice artistic-wise, but if you're going for looking  _human_ —"

"Peter, close your mouth," Andrew interrupted, noticing how heated the conversation was getting. "Look, we'll just call her Ayesha, okay?"

"If it doesn't suit me, what would you call me, then?" ' _Ayesha_ ' said, ignoring Andrew.

Peter thought for a few moments, his hands slowing down for a few moments, before he answered. "Kayla. Or Morgan."

"…Morgan's a unisex name."

"Still suits you."

"My parents would  _flip_."

"I thought that's what you wanted?"

The girl seemed to consider this for a few moments, before grinning. "Good point."

The whole time, Alex had been watching the group interact with intrigue, trying to find what connected them all. From the outside, they looked very different – Alice and Andrew were military children, and from what Alice had told him, he was guessing that Peter's father was the military engineer, ' _Ayesha_ 's parents were the marine attorneys, Kate's (the girl with glasses) mother was the one who worked in HR, and Derek (the dark haired guy lying beside Kate) was left as the one who had lived with his Navy SEAL uncle since he was five.

And that left…

"Hello, hello, royal subjects!"

Alice seemed to take a deep breath through her nose as soon as she heard the voice, closing her eyes. Kate closed her book sharply, handing it over to Derek who tucked it under his head as a pillow. ' _Ayesha_ ' (Alex still wasn't too sure of her name) acted as if nothing had happened, and Andrew shifted his head to look in the direction of the two approaching figures.

Both of them appeared to be strawberry-blondes with matching mischievous features, one carrying a bag of what was most probably supplies (what the supplies were for, Alex had no idea) and the other with… a stupid number of hats on his head. As soon as they reached the circle, a hat was thrown onto Andrew's face, causing the male to cough as he sat up.

"Sit up, loser, we've arrived."

"Oh, shut up."

The bag of supplies was dropped into the middle of the rough circle the group was sat in, before both of the newcomers focused on Alex.

"Hey, look Jon, we have a newbie," one said, grinning as he moved to sit down beside Alex. The other sat on the other side of the blonde teen.

"Hey, you're right, Terry." The second looked around the group. "Who brought this one along?"

"Andrew," Peter called from where he was still fiddling around with his device, focusing intently on the mesh of wires and metal parts in front of him. "Apparently met him through Gibbs' work."

"Oh?" Both boys looked over to Andrew. "So you're friends?"

"No," both Alex and Andrew answered abruptly, earning raised eyebrows from everyone in the group. "He's just staying over," Andrew explained, "and Jess was going to a friend's house, so I couldn't leave him in the house alone."

Everyone watched him for a moment, scrutinising his explanation, before the twins turned to Alex again, this time with big grins on their faces.

"Well, you know, when we meet new people," Terry started as Jon moved to pull something out of the supplied bag, "we really like to get to know them. So how about we play a little game."

"Yeah," Jon agreed, and Alex realised he was pulling out items like packs of cards, mini shot glasses and juice… an empty bottle…

_Oh no…_

"Actually," Alex started, trying to think of a way to escape, "I was going to sit on my own for a bit… just try to think about… stuff…" It was a lame excuse, but he really wasn't sure about how much he wanted to talk about himself.

"Oh, you could probably spend a few minutes with us," Terry cooed, wrapping an arm over Alex's shoulder and ignoring how he tensed. "Come on… we'll let you even play first…"

Jon just grinned as he held out the pack of cards to Alex, fanning them out to let him pick one. "Pick a card, any card, and we'll get started."

Alex pushed down the feeling of nerves that rose at the sight of the words "Would You Rather…" on the backs of the cards, taking a deep breath, before reaching for a card. Here went nothing…


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! I hope you've all been doing well! You've probably noticed that I've slowed down (a little) on the updates - mainly because uni is kicking my butt at the moment and I don't have as much free time to write anymore. But! Easter holidays are coming up in the next few weeks, so hopefully I'll be getting chapters out faster then!
> 
> Anyway, I feel as if we're slowly getting closer to the action parts - not quite there yet, but we're getting there. Without further ado, read on! And I hope y'all enjoy it!

"Alex and I were teens when we first met. It was over the summer, last summer actually, and we became really close because we hung out a lot. We got into… a fair bit of trouble together."

Gibbs and Sabina were sitting in a cluster of chairs in the reception area; the older man had a notebook out as he spoke with the young woman, whilst Ziva was outside looking for any clues that she could and taking photos. The last he'd seen of her, she'd had her eyes focused on something in the wall – he hadn't questioned her about it, deciding instead to focus on speaking to Sabina before she left the hotel.

At her last statement, the older man raised his eyebrows. "And by trouble, you mean…?"

She bit her lip, as if she was contemplating on how to phrase her answer. "We… ended up on a really long roadtrip together. Like, longer than expected. We hitchhiked like we were trying to get away from something – we kinda played it like a game, really." She shrugged a little, trying to seem nonchalant about it, but something about her actions made Gibbs feel as if she was hiding something – something important.

"What else do you know about Alex?"

Sabina pursed her lips as she thought. "He went to school at Brooklands, in Chelsea. I didn't go there, but I hear lots of rumours about him from people who had friends who went there," she admitted. "Apparently he was out of school a lot – don't know why, but… after his uncle passed away, apparently he wasn't around a lot." She shrugged a little. "People thought he was on drugs, apparently."

Gibbs' eyebrows rose at that. "And did you believe them?" He already knew the answer to that, but he wanted to hear it from her mouth.

"What, me? No way!" She gave him an incredulous look. "Have you  _seen_  Alex? He doesn't look like a druggie at all!"

"Just a little banged up."

At that, she froze, and Gibbs knew he'd touched on something important. Leaning forward a little, he made sure he was looking Sabina in the eye when he spoke.

"I've noticed that Alex has a lot of bruises – too many for a kid his age if he's got the clean record you claim he has."

She pursed his lips, not exactly knowing what Gibbs was suggesting but refusing to give him any more information. "What he does is none of my business."

The agent resisted the urge to narrow his eyes at her. He knew she was hiding something about Alex – that much was obvious – but he just needed to know what…

Just then, Ziva entered the hotel reception, glancing around a bit before spotting Gibbs and the girl, heading over to them. She looked more than a little concerned at her findings from outside, and as soon as she reached them she placed a hand on Gibbs' shoulder. "Gibbs, there is something I think you need to see," she murmured gently.

The teen seemed to take that as an opportunity to escape. "I'm assuming we're done here, Agent Gibbs?" she asked, standing from her seat and giving him an expectant look.

The man stood as well, analysing her for a few moments before holding out his hand for her to shake. "If I have any more questions, I'll be getting back in touch," he told her, forcing the smallest of smiles onto his face.

The teen simply nodded, taking his hand in a brief handshake before walking briskly away, heading off to do what she had originally intended to do before she had been stopped.

The older agent turned to Ziva, frowning something. "Something I needed to see?"

Ziva gave a simple nod, before leading Gibbs outside to the corner she had been investigating. When she was sure that the agent was there and listening, she began to speak. "As you left to speak with the girl, I found that there was something etched into the brickwork. I have called McGee and asked him if he could retrieve tapes any cameras pointing in this general direction over the few days before Alex was found, but… I took a photo and have been getting in touch with some old contacts." The look on her face darkened. "I had a feeling I already knew what this etching meant, but I had to be sure."

Gibbs leaned forward to look more closely at the carving Ziva had been talking about. It was strange – an image of what looked like a lobster or a scorpion, drawn within a circle. Despite the fact that it was etched into the brickwork of a building (which was probably illegal in and of itself), the design was fairly detailed, and pretty much unnoticeable unless you knew what you were looking for.

"What does it mean?" he asked, straightening up and looking the woman in the eyes.

She hesitated for a moment before speaking. "If it means what I think it means… then Alex may have got himself caught up with an international criminal agency."

* * *

Miss Penny Bloomfield was a quiet woman.

_Miss_  was probably the wrong title to use, but considering most of the children she worked with insisted on addressing her as such, she'd practically adopted it. In fact, she had a PhD in Child Psychology, and was pretty much a fully trained psychologist when it came to dealing with individuals below the age of eighteen. When they were willing to be open, the children were so interesting to deal with – not easy, because every child could be challenging in their own way, but  _interesting_. The way in which they dealt with trauma was significantly difficult in comparison to the way in which an adult did so, and it was such an intriguing thing to work out.

The only thing she found difficult, really, was dealing with the adults that came  _with_  the children… because, as a quiet woman, she had quickly worked out that  _they_  were the ones who made the most noise.

Hearing the knock on the door, she furrowed her brows and checked her appointment sheet. There was no one scheduled in at that time, so no one should have been visiting… right?

"Come in," she called out, watching the door to see who would enter.

A single eyebrow rose when she realised that it was definitely not a child who was meant to come in for an appointment and mixed up the times, but a guardian.

Granted, a usually quiet guardian, but she knew enough about the government types to realise that if Special Agent Gibbs wanted to make noise, he would make a lot and probably get her fired.

"Special Agent Gibbs," she greeted simply, closing up a case file of notes on a child that she had been reading up on (for a later appointment) and moving it to the side. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Your receptionist told me you had no scheduled appointments for this time," the older man responded, walking into the lightly coloured room. The walls were painted a calming pale blue – most likely in an attempt to both brighten up the woman's office and as a method of calming herself down after a long day of dealing with children.

She gestured to the seat opposite her at the desk as he closed the door behind him. "Have a seat."

The man sat in the soft leather chair.

"So, what can I do for you today?"

"I've got a kid."

_Surprise, surprise_ , the woman thought, though when Gibbs continued the thought was kicked out of her mind.

"We found him earlier this week, on a crime scene. Unconscious." He didn't expect the woman to know the boy, deciding not to show her a photo of him, but went on to explain, "Doctors at the hospital found bruising and scars on him – old, but there – and from what I can see, he seems closed off." He pursed his lips. "Andrew claims there's… something threatening about him."

The woman furrowed her brows as she took in the information given. She'd worked with Andrew enough to know that, although he said very little to her the majority of the time, when he spoke out about something, it was because it genuinely worried him. He was never one to waste his words. So if he was complaining about this… well, it was an issue.

"And… do you expect me to profile him…?" she asked slowly, clasping her hands together and placing them on the desk between them. "I haven't met the child, don't know how he functions, and… you want me to work out what kind of person he is…?" The silence she received in response was enough of an answer. "You do know that my initial profile of children includes behaviours that can only be  _observed_ , right? I can't give you a profile of him… but from what you've said, it sounds like he's gone through some sort of abuse." She drew her lips into a thin line. She honestly hated this subject, but it had to be discussed. "Is he currently living with family? Parents? Siblings?"

"He was recently fostered, and they're working their way to full adoption."

"How recently?"

"Within the past month."

Her eyebrows rose quickly at that. "That rules out abuse from current family. Do you know who he lived with before?"

"A housekeeper, I've been told. She passed earlier this month. He had an uncle who passed last February. Documents indicate his parents died not long after he was born."

Her eyes focused on the desk in front of her as she thought. "So… an external abuser…"

"Do you think he'd have got involved in gang violence?"

She looked up at Gibbs at the question. "That is a possibility that can't be ruled out… but if he was found at a crime scene  _alive_ , would that not rule out the gang violence? He would most likely have been killed if this was rival gang violence." She sighed. "It's likely that he was abused, but  _by whom_  is the real question. That is my opinion, anyway." She scowled lightly. "I would be more firm in my opinion if I could meet him and talk."

Gibbs just stared at her. "He's under witness protection."

"That didn't stop you with Andrew and Jessica."

"Parental permission."

The woman opened her mouth to argue that the boy  _had_  no parents, but then she realised that Gibbs likely meant his foster parents, and she closed her mouth, glaring at Gibbs when he sent her a small smirk. "If that's all you came for, then you're free to leave. Unfortunately, I can't give you any more information without actually coming into contact with him. I'm sorry, Agent Gibbs."

He gave a simple nod as he stood. "Thank you for your time."

"Thank you for wasting mine."

He raised a single eyebrow, before smirking and turning to walk out of the room. "Have fun with your reading, Dr Bloomfield."

She simply scowled as she pulled the case file of notes back in front of her.

Maybe it  _wasn't_  the noisy parents that were the most difficult to deal with.

* * *

Alex had his hands shoved into his pockets as he walked along, moving a few steps behind Andrew so as to not invade the boy's personal space.

The afternoon hadn't been too bad. Alex thought the other boy's friends were nice enough; sure, the game of "Would You Rather…" had been awkward at first, considering he hadn't been the type to play those games a lot when he was younger anyway (because Ian thought they were stupid) and he only ever played them when Tom was about to initiate… but in the end, it had been fun. They'd moved on from that to playing "Truth or Dare", and it hadn't taken Alex long to figure out who the daring ones were – one of whom was Andrew, most definitely. He himself had been dared to climb a tree and hang upside down off one of the highest branches, and even though he didn't exactly have a death wish he did exactly that, automatically earning friendship points from the rest of the group. Heck… he didn't know whether he was imagining things, but even Andrew had seemed to warm up to him the slightest bit.

"Slightest", because as soon as they'd left the group, Andrew began to act coldly towards him again. Which was why he was walking behind Andrew instead of beside him.

And was also why he was surprised when Andrew called back to him.

"Hey, uh, Alex?" The boy seemed slightly nervous, or awkward. "Do you want to, uh… you know… walk  _with_  me…?"

Alex's eyebrows shot up in surprise. An offer to walk  _with_  him instead of behind him? Alex was almost suspicious at the boy's sudden change in behaviour, but decided to go with it anyway, speeding up slightly so that the two were walking side-by-side instead of Alex behind Andrew.

The two walked in silence for a few moments, before Andrew decided to speak.

"How long have you been practicing karate for, then?" he asked, casually trying to start a conversation.

Alex's lips quirked up ever so slightly. That had been one of the truths he'd revealed to the others, which had almost immediately awed them all. Someone their age was a black belt in karate? That sort of thing didn't seem possible to them at all, but apparently Alex had done it. He'd become  _that_  good.

"Since I was about eight, I think…?" Alex himself wasn't sure. His entire childhood was more of a blur now, honestly. All he remembered were the numerous competitions, the many prizes, and the "reward trips" he went on that, looking back on it, were more like training missions than anything. Honestly… his life had been a mess from the start, and it was destined that way.

Andrew's eyebrows rose. " _That_  long?" The teen couldn't think of anything he'd been training with for that long. Sure, he played football (it wasn't seriously, but he was good enough to get into the school's team as a freshman), but the closest thing he had… well, that had been archery when he was younger, and for a couple of days in the summer following his thirteenth birthday his dad had taught him how to shoot a gun (and realised he had a pretty good aim, which meant he had promptly been banned from using one anywhere other than the shooting range if he was taken there). And even then, Andrew wouldn't call himself skilled or a professional.

Alex shrugged a little. "My uncle… he thought it was a good idea."

"Did you enjoy it?"

Alex resisted the urge to wince at the fact that Andrew was speaking in the past tense. After all, it was perfectly logical that he would, considering Alex was now in the U.S. and had foster parents. "Yeah, I guess I did…"

Andrew's hands were firmly in his pockets and he looked ahead as he asked his next question. "Did you ever have to use it?"

He wasn't prepared for the way Alex froze, his face paling for some reason or other as his eyes fixed on no specific spot in front of him.

Nor had Alex been prepared for the flashback that suddenly had him frozen on the walk back to Gibbs' house.

_Alex hadn't expected to get cornered in the corner of the alley – after all, it hadn't looked like a dead end when he'd run in._

_Then again, it wasn't as if he'd scanned it and checked before running down it._

_Scanning the three men in front of him, his mind automatically began to think of all the possible ways he could outsmart them and get out of this situation – a skill that he'd hoped he'd forgotten when he'd first arrived, but he was glad he had right then. All three were big men, bulky, probably slow but definitely strong. If he was fast enough, he could easily outsmart them and get them to trip over their own feet. Out of the corner of his eye, Alex spotted what looked like a piece of old metal piping – perfect. There was a weapon. If only he could get to it…_

_Deciding to catch them by surprise, Alex decided to make the first move. Maybe if he went for a kick to the abdomen first—_

"Alex!"

Alex gasped as he was suddenly brought back to reality, pushing away the hands that had grabbed him around the shoulders and appearing almost fearful, his chest heaving as he struggled to pull in air.

Andrew took a step back, hands up to show he wouldn't hurt the other male, but he appeared concerned. "Alex, breathe. Focus on me, and breathe."

It took a little while, and at first Alex seemed reluctant to follow Andrew's instructions, looking around himself as he struggled to calm down and regain his breath and staggering a little on his feet; eventually, though, he focused on the other boy, using the mostly calming posture as a focal point for regulating his breathing and anchoring himself again. His hands were still trembling, and he still looked pale (and, Andrew would never say this to anyone,  _haunted_ ) but he appeared to have control over his breathing again. Andrew watched him for a few moments, waiting to make sure Alex was actually calm enough to speak, before talking.

"You alright?" he asked.

Alex hesitated for a few moments, before slowly nodding.

"You okay to walk?"

Alex seemed hesitant to reply to that.

"We can get the agents watching us to give us a ride," he suggested. "They're there to keep you safe. If you don't want to walk, we don't have to."

Alex took a little while to think of his answer, before finally taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "I'm okay with walking," he answered with a shaky voice, before offering Andrew a weak smile. "Thanks… for the offer though."

Andrew gave a single nod, relaxing his stance and letting his hands drop down to his sides. "It's alright." The look on his face told Alex that he wasn't quite sure whether to believe the claim that he was alright, so Alex pursed his lips and rolled his eyes at the other male.

"I'm  _fine_."

"Did you just have a panic attack?"

Alex had to close his eyes to force the rising panic back down. He couldn't let it come back up, or take control again. "No," he lied.

Andrew narrowed his eyes at the other teen, before deciding to wait for Alex to make the next move – after all, he seemed too stubborn to listen to Andrew right then. Not that he blamed him – he hadn't exactly been the nicest of people to Alex since he'd arrived.

And though he was still suspicious of the other guy, maybe he could cut him a bit of slack.

"I'm getting the agents to give us a ride home," Andrew replied, after a good couple of minutes of Alex standing there silently with his eyes closed. The blonde opened his eyes, giving Andrew a panicked look, but Andrew returned with him own firm one – one that he must have picked up from Gibbs at some point. "At this rate, you're never getting back to the house, and you look like crap. We're better off getting a lift back."

Before Alex could even make a comment on it, Andrew was waving over at the black sedan that had been slowly following them down the street, and it pulled up beside the two boys. Moving towards the backseat doors, Andrew opened it for Alex to climb in first. "Let's go."

Alex still looked shaky and unsure, but did as he was told anyway, sliding onto the leather seating and shuffling along so that Andrew could climb in as well. As soon as the door had shut, Alex relaxed a little, leaning back into the seating, though he was still tense in the presence of the new individuals.

Andrew, on the other hand, just sighed contentedly as he sat back in the leather seating, glancing over at the two agents in the front seats of the car. "Homeward bound, boys."

One of the agents sighed, looking back at Andrew. "Are you ever going to get tired of saying that?"

The teen just quirked a grin as the car moved off, heading for the Gibbs residence.


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! Long time no speak! I know, I know, it's been forever since I last posted. I'd originally hoped that, since I was on Easter holidays, I would be able to write more and get more chapters out to you, just as I had during the university term. Obviously, that was not the case. Not going to give you guys excuses, but I am sorry for not getting anything out to you guys.
> 
> I do have something for you all now, though! I've managed to finish it just as I came back to uni (right before the semester starts up again), so I thought I'd give it to you guys sooner rather than later!
> 
> As usual, read on, and I hope you enjoy!

Gibbs wasn't sure whether to be surprised or relieved when he returned to the house to find it silent and everyone sound asleep.

Or, at least,  _almost_  everyone.

Approaching the kids' rooms, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Jessica was already asleep, probably worn out from her day with her friends, and the older man entered her room to tuck her in gently before checking on the boys. Alex was already fast asleep, funnily enough, on Andrew's mattress instead of the sleeping bag on the floor. That confused Gibbs slightly, considering that of all the people in there he expected to spot the male with the mop of brown hair.

His unspoken question was answered when he entered the basement, only to find the light on and Andrew sat at the bench, seemingly sketching something in a workbook that Gibbs had bought for his project ideas at the beginning of the summer. The boy was so engrossed in his work that he didn't realise Gibbs had descended the stairs until the older man was leaning on the workbench beside him.

"What are you adding?"

The teen's hand jolted in surprise, a long pencil line marring the hasty sketch, and he took a deep breath before turning to glare at Gibbs.

"Don't do that!"

Gibbs simply reached over and grabbed an eraser from in front of the teen, beginning to get rid of the mistaken line. Once he was done, he placed the eraser back in its original position.

"What are you doing down here?" the older man finally asked, moving so that he was half sitting on the workbench instead of leaning forward on his elbows. "I thought you'd be asleep."

"Not tired," the teen responded, turning back to his sketch. "Too much on my mind."

"Has it got anything to do with Alex being in your bed?"

"I told him to sleep there."

Gibbs' eyebrows shot up at that.

Andrew sighed. "Because he looked like crap."

"Language."

The teen gave him a deadpan look before continuing. "He wasn't feeling great. Looked super tired. He had a panic attack on the way back."

"…A panic attack?" That stumped Gibbs. After his talk with the psychologist that afternoon, he'd been convinced that the teen had got himself into something, unlike Miss Bloomfield (who had been sure that his bruises had been due to some sort of abuse that he'd endured), but now it seemed more likely that her assumption was right. Maybe his arrival in the States was more him escaping from something… but then Gibbs had to wonder  _what_.

Andrew pursed his lips as he nodded. "Yeah… but I guess he's mostly alright now…" He then gave Gibbs another deadpan look. "If you're wondering why I'm not in my room, it's because I have nothing to entertain myself with."

Gibbs rolled his eyes at that. "The iPad is now evidence."

"That  _iPad_  is my only form of entertainment!"

"You're down here sketching, aren't you?"

Andrew rolled his eyes at Gibbs, which earned him a ruffle of his hair. "Hey!"

"You need to get that cut," Gibbs responded with a smirk, knowing just how much Andrew hated getting his hair trimmed. Before the teen could say anything in response, he headed back upstairs. "I hope you fed those two before they went to bed!"

"Takeout was good, thanks!" the teen called out in response, grinning to himself as he heard Gibbs pause at the top of the staircase, before scoffing and leaving the basement. He of all people knew how much Gibbs disapproved of himself and Jessica eating takeout – if the man was going to tease him about his hair, then he sure as heck was going to tease him back about getting takeout.

* * *

Running a hand through his hair, Tony leaned back into his chair, closing his eyes. He was pretty sure he'd spent the whole of last night attempting to get into contact with everyone the Petty Officer had known, and whilst his family were probably more accommodating to the fact that he was a federal agent and needed the information (added to the fact that they were absolutely distraught and probably needed to get some sort of closure), people he'd probably been in contact with whilst on duty were not as willing to provide details. And even if they did, it was all stuff they'd heard before.

And he wasn't even done with the list of people to call yet. There were still at least a few more… and from what he'd seen, the Petty Officer was either very easy for females to get along with, or had a  _lot_  of girlfriends…

He was startled out of his train of thought by a pair of hands settling on his shoulders, and he opened his eyes to see Ziva staring down at him, a small smirk on her face even though there was concern in her eyes.

"I am pretty sure you have only arrived within the last hour," she teased, squeezing his shoulders lightly. "You already seem as if you have worked a full day."

Tony opened his eyes and glanced up at her. "I didn't sleep great," he grumbled sourly.

She gave him a playful pout. "Are you sleepy?"

"Don't mock me at nine in the morning."

"That is precisely why I am mocking you."

"If you two wouldn't mind keeping the PDA to a minimum," McGee commented as he entered the bullpen, heading straight for his desk. He quickly opened a drawer and began to rummage through it. "No one's been through my stuff… right?" He sent Tony a short glare.

The older agent rolled his eyes at McGee. "Look, I didn't do anything. Okay, maybe I took a chocolate bar, but that's it. Nothing important."

"That chocolate bar was Abby's."

Tony froze at that.

Ziva patted him on the shoulders before moving back to her desk. "I bid you good luck."

"Will you tell her it was an accident?" he asked McGee, eyes wide.

"I'll tell her you ate it," McGee responded with a smirk.

Before Tony could come up with a comeback to that, Gibbs entered the bullpen.

"McGee, get down to the lab and finish off finding out what's on that flash drive. I need that information as soon as possible," he barked, slowing to a stop beside Tony's desk. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

"A solid four hours, boss," Tony answered, stifling a yawn.

"Get some coffee in you. I need an update on what you found."

Ziva stood from her desk. "I will get coffee," she said. At Gibbs' approving nod, she left the bullpen hastily, only just stopping to grab her purse on her way out. As soon as she'd left, Gibbs gave Tony a look.

Tony furrowed his brows. "What?"

"Rule Twelve."

Tony tensed for a moment, his face paling. "Nothing's going on, boss," he responded, forcing out a weak laugh. When Gibbs continued to give him a steely gaze, he gulped. "Boss, we haven't even—"

"Just keep it in mind," Gibbs interrupted, folding his arms as he half-sat on his desk. He waited a few moments for Tony to get the hint, before smirking as the agent stumbled over himself to gather and report everything he'd found.

"I called around to talk to other people the Petty Officer had ever been in contact with," he started, flipping through his notepad and reading through the scribbled notes. "Nothing much – all of them said he was quiet, reserved… a couple of the ladies said he was good to start off with, but tended to be secretive and push them away once it got to a certain point. Like he had something that he didn't want them to get involved with. Then I spoke to the family." He flipped the page. "Apparently, they hadn't been told of his passing… so that was a great thing to tell them, considering they got really suspicious when they realised I was asking all about him. His dad said he was a good kid, never did anything stupid, always worked hard for his country. His brother said something similar, and that he hadn't heard from him much recently anyway so he didn't really have anything important he could tell us. Apparently, they weren't all that close. The sister living with his dad said he came home to visit when he could, called as often as he could, and was always generous… ah, here's where it gets interesting. His other sister said something about him being off the grid for a little while… something about work meaning he couldn't officially put anything down. Apparently, he was very secretive about it, didn't tell their dad, but she was in on it. And can't say anything other than it was government work."

The pieces clicked together in Gibbs' mind automatically. Government work that was secretive… with a CIA-redacted file.

"He's ex-CIA," Gibbs sighed as he stood and headed to the elevator to Abby's lab.

Hopefully they had definite evidence of his conclusion.

* * *

Alex's brows were furrowed as he woke up, feeling completely disoriented.

All throughout the night, images had been flashing through his mind. He wasn't sure whether they were memories, or just random dreams that his mind had thought up, but all he kept seeing were a handful of faces – a handful of faces he couldn't quite remember the names to, but he knew they were important. Important for what, he didn't know. But he knew that he knew that redheaded guy, who looked serious half the time but smiled at him the rest of the time; and the equally redheaded female, who grinned most of the time; and that one man he'd seen on the corner, whose face was indistinguishable, but Alex got a horrible feeling every time he appeared as he slept – as if he was going to come for him, and attack him. But, in all honesty, he couldn't specifically remember them.

Heck, he could barely remember what had happened the night before. After getting into the car following his panic attack… it had all been a blur, really. There had been some movement, but he honestly couldn't even remember climbing into bed.

Wait…  _bed_?

He shot up into a sitting position and looked around, his eyes wide. This… was not where he was supposed to be sleeping. This was Andrew's bed, and Andrew's stuff was off-limits. There was  _no way_  he should be sleeping there.

His head turned sharply, his eyes wide when the door opened and he realised it was Andrew entering the room. Andrew's eyebrows simply rose when he realised Alex was up.

"So you're awake."

Alex practically leapt out of the bed. "I'm so sorry, I can explain…" Really, he couldn't. He had no memory of how he'd even got into the bed – how could he explain when (in his eyes) there was no way for him  _to_  explain?

Andrew just stared at him for a few moments, blinking, before cracking a grin and beginning to laugh.

"Dude… I know why you were in the bed, don't worry," he responded, heading straight for the sleeping bag on the floor and beginning to roll it up to put to one side. "You looked like crap last night, so I gave you the bed. No biggie."

Alex blinked at Andrew's explanation, looking very much confused. Whether it was at the fact that Andrew had offered him his bed, or was actually being  _nice_  to him, he wasn't quite sure, but he was definitely sure that he was confused.

And from the way Andrew was looking at him, he was sure the other boy could also see that he was confused.

"Look…" Andrew started, glancing away from Alex for a moment, "I… haven't been the nicest of guys, alright? But you're alright, so…"

Alex's brows furrowed. "I'm 'alright'?" he asked slowly.

"You're just a witness."

"You… thought I was more than a witness?"

Andrew shrugged. "You were found unconscious at a crime scene with blood on your body. I had a right to feel suspicious."

Andrew had a point there, Alex had to admit, but whilst he was glad to be out of the guy's bad books… he wasn't quite sure how to feel about his revelation as to why he was there in the first place. It was… kind of awkward, in all honesty.

And so was the silence between them. Which was why, after a few moments, Andrew decided to break it.

"Anyway, Kate's invited us round to hers this afternoon," the brunette teen explained, shoving his hands into his pockets. It was then that Alex realised that Andrew was actually fully dressed and ready to go out, in a pair of shorts (with more pockets that either of them could count), a t-shirt, and Vans. "I was wondering whether… you wanted to come along?" At the surprised look on Alex's face, Andrew hurriedly moved to elaborate. "I mean, the others really liked you, and you seemed to enjoy yourself yesterday as well… but if you're too tired to go, that's no problem at all!"

"I'd like to come."

Andrew appeared genuinely surprised at that. "Really?"

Alex managed to give Andrew a small smile in response. "…Yeah, I would."

"Oh." Andrew returned Alex's smile. "Well… that's great! I mean… you might want to start getting ready, since we've got to drop Jess off at her friend's again… but I'm glad you want to come, I guess." The two drifted off into a silence again – though, this time, it was more of a comfortable one.

"Is there anything to eat…?" Alex asked quietly, this time not  _wanting_  to break the silence.

Andrew nodded. "There are cheese and bacon bagels; Gibbs made them for us before he left. And there's juice, if you want some with it."

Alex nodded as he moved towards the door, hands folded awkwardly over his chest. "Yeah… that sounds good."

Andrew nodded as he turned to lead Alex down to the kitchen. "I hope you like orange juice – that's all we've got because that's all Jess'll drink."

"You don't like orange juice?"

Andrew scrunched up his nose, earning a chuckle from Alex as the two headed down the stairs to have some breakfast.

* * *

Arriving in the lab, Gibbs was almost immediately met with excited yells from Abby and McGee, who were high-fiving each other in triumph. The man's eyebrows rose as he stood at the door for a few moments, waiting for the two to calm down and realise he was there, before walking into the room.

"Abby and I managed to get into the CIA database  _and_  obtain some of the redacted information in the files," McGee explained as the file appeared on the large TV screen, alongside a few other documents. "Looking at the database for the period where the Petty Officer was off the grid… it shows that he was actually working as an agent under a man named  _Joe Byrne_. Looking at current data for the guy, he hasn't quite reached retirement age, but I'm guessing rumours are spreading that he's thinking of retiring soon. But that's not all." Bringing up another image – this one of a young woman – McGee began to explain. "Lisa Harrison, aged 34, a CIA agent who worked with Marks in the time he was off the grid, from what I've read. They were close, but something happened and he left the CIA, leaving her behind. She's still alive, but location is unknown, likely because of a mission of some sort. Apparently,  _she_  has a brother, Dominic Harrison, who was… well, fired. Location unknown, but he was last seen boarding a plane to Europe."

"And here's where it gets interesting," Abby jumped in, focusing on the redacted document and blowing it up. "We managed to get some information – not a lot – from the file, and we narrowed down one word that we actually have clues about." The screen zoomed in on one word, and Gibbs' brows furrowed as he read it aloud,

"SCORPIA."

"That's right. I compared that with the photo of the etching in the wall Ziva sent me," the photo appeared on the screen, "and looked through databases for any mentions of it or any images. There was barely anything on Scorpia itself, but there are etchings of the image in the wall all over the world… and apparently there are many criminals and agencies  _affiliated_  with Scorpia. There are known  _assassins_  affiliated with it, Gibbs." She gave Gibbs a stern look. "If Ziva says Alex is caught up with an agency like this, then it doesn't look good for him… or us, since there's a chance we're now investigating them."

_SCORPIA_. Gibbs knew nothing about them – they were a group he hadn't dealt with, and from the looks of it they were very good at keeping in the shadows. However… he had a feeling that he knew someone who  _did_  know about them, and would most likely be able to provide the information that was needed.

"McGee, call Ziva down here," Gibbs said, folding his arms. "And whilst you're at it, call DiNozzo too. We need to have a team chat."

* * *

Alex had his hands tucked deep into his pockets as he walked down the street, Jessica sandwiched between himself and Andrew as they headed to Kate's house. Apparently, the little redhead had a friend who lived not too far from Kate, and so the two boys would drop the little girl off there before heading straight on to Kate's place to hang out with Andrew's friends.

Alex really had no idea why he was agreeing to hang out with them again. Granted, the group had been nice enough to him last time, but there was also the fact that last time had only been the day before, and they had proceeded to interrogate him whilst claiming that it was "a game" and so he "had to take part", which felt far too much like peer pressure to Alex. Not that he'd hated it – a small part of him had actually missed that part of school – but he had certainly felt a little uncomfortable with it.

Then, there was also the fact that this walk to Jessica's friend's house was pretty much silent – to the point that, for Alex, it was also getting uncomfortable. He was beginning to wish that he'd just stayed in the house; the agents were outside, he would have been safe on his own.

The fact that the agents were driving in their dark car and walking around not too far from himself and Andrew was just plain creepy, in his opinion.

Before he could make an attempt to break the awkward silence, the group turned off the main pavement and headed up to the front door of a modest-looking house. Andrew and Jessica headed forward, approaching the front door, whilst Alex hung back, hands in his pockets. It was a few moments after knocking that the door was opened, and Andrew knelt down to give his sister a tight hug before letting her run inside. Alex's eyebrows rose at that.

He had to admit, that was probably the most emotion he'd seen the little girl ever express.

As soon as the door closed, Andrew turned and headed back over to Alex, hands in his pockets. The two walked in silence for a few moments before Alex spoke.

"Who was she really excited to see?" he asked, glancing over at Andrew as they headed down the street towards Kate's house.

Andrew smiled. "Oh, one of her friends from school," he explained. "She befriended her around this time last year, and her mom's really nice too. She's part Middle-Eastern – I think Jess said she was half-Israeli, but I can't quite remember."

Alex nodded slowly, taking the information in. Heck, the only Israeli he'd known of before moving to the States had been a Scorpia agent, and even though he now knew that Ziva was Israeli… he wasn't sure he could trust her. Simply because of her Mossad history.

Then again, if they truly knew of his history, he was pretty sure no one would trust him either.

The two boys were just reaching the house when Alex sensed something was off, and he stopped, his brows furrowing.

He rarely had this feeling anymore, if ever. Since he came to the U.S., the only time he'd ever felt this way was…

He turned around with wide eyes, searching for the black sedan that had followed them the whole way there.

It wasn't behind them.

"Andrew…" he started, sounding nervous. The other teen paused halfway up to the front door, hearing the tone in Alex's voice, and turned to face him.

"What…?" Andrew asked slowly.

Alex's eyes flickered between the boy and the door. "Something's not right…" When Andrew's eyes widened, he was pretty sure the other boy agreed with him.

Until he felt a gloved hand slide over his mouth, the other wrapped tightly around his torso. Seconds later, he saw the same being done to Andrew. Alex's brows furrowed as he began to struggle, trying to get out of the grip; he knew what was going on, and if he and Andrew could just get away…

The grip then tightened on him, the arm around his torso making it difficult for him to breathe. "Not one peep," a voice whispered in his ear, "or the other kid gets it."

That made Alex freeze, and from the paled expression on Andrew's face, he was sure that he'd heard the exact same thing. Then he felt the hand being removed from his torso… and the gun being pressed to the small of his back.

"Do as we say, and you'll be able to walk by the end of this." He felt the barrel being pressed into his back. "We'll make a one-eighty degree turn, and head back the way we came. Get moving."

The next few minutes were tense as Alex and Andrew were forced away from the house and back down the pathway, side by side. At one point, their eyes met, and a split second later Andrew stumbled, the sound of his feet slapping the ground as he attempted to stabilise himself covering up the clattering that Alex heard. He avoided Andrew's eyes the rest of the time so as to not give anything away.

Eventually, at the end of the street, the pair was led to a white van sitting in an alley, just out of sight of any cameras on the street. Somewhere along the way, the hands had been moved from their mouths to make everything seem less suspicious. Pausing at the alleyway entrance, it took a sharp nudge from behind to get Alex moving again.

The van was parked with its back out facing the street, and as soon as they'd entered the alley a man climbed out the front seat of the van, moving to open the back doors.

"I guess this is the last you'll remember of us, Mr Rider," was murmured in Alex's ear. Andrew's head whipped towards Alex with wide eyes, about to question why they knew Alex's name, but before either boy could speak the butts of the guns held against them were smacked against their skulls.

And they were out cold.


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, dear friends and readers. I apologise profusely for my lack of updating, and in the midst of this exam season have decided to present this chapter to you as a way of apology. Got back to uni, and things got pretty hectic. Basically, I've only completed one of five exams, so really I shouldn't be posting this but I thought I would give it to you all... particularly because I've been feeling the urge to write recently, and I can't really write more without giving you more.
> 
> Next chapter below, so read on, amigos, and enjoy!

When Ziva entered the room, she noticed multiple things at once.

The music was off.

There was something up on the screen.

And Gibbs didn't look pleased.

The combination of the three made her feel as if the world was going to end right there and then, and she would have entered the room cautiously, had Tony not barged into her from behind.

She turned and glared at him sharply. "Do you have any idea of how to watch where you are going?" she hissed, before straightening up and walking over to where Gibbs stood. Tony sheepishly followed after her, coffee in hand as he attempted to wake himself up more properly.

"When you two are done playing around," Gibbs snapped, causing both of the newly-arrived agents to straighten up. "Look at the screen, tell me what you see."

Ziva and Tony both began to analyse what was on the screen… and whilst Ziva's face slowly began to pale, Tony only appeared more and more confused.

"It looks like the Petty Officer worked for the CIA, boss," Tony answered slowly, hoping he got the answer right. "But… I have no idea what this  _SCORPIA_  is. At least, I've heard of them, but don't know much about them specifically."

"SCORPIA is an underground criminal organisation… of sorts," Ziva explained, glancing over to Gibbs as if she was asking for permission to continue. When he gave her a single nod, she carried on speaking, "They work for anyone and everyone, as long as you give them an important enough task and are willing to pay the money. That is what I have heard. Fortunately, I have not been so unfortunate as to cross paths with an agent – it is said that their agents are ruthless, and that they are often trained assassins. You are very unlikely to survive a meeting." Her eyes scanned over the documents on the screen. "It seems as if the Petty Officer came into contact with a SCORPIA agent… though what he did to earn his death is surely a question."

"And what did Alex have to do with the Petty Officer?" Tony asked suddenly, his brows furrowed. "All we know is that he was in Virginia with his foster family. Why did he run away from them, how did he end up at the Petty Officer's house, and  _why_  was he there?"

"Good questions, DiNozzo," Gibbs muttered. He turned to Ziva. "Get as much information as you can on any missions where the CIA and SCORPIA crossed paths," he ordered. "You have contacts. I'm gonna need you to use them. We'll need them cross-referenced with this one. You two," he turned to Abby and McGee, "keep trying to access this file, get into the CIA, whatever you need to do to get this information. We need to know exactly what this case is, and why the Petty Officer was killed over it. DiNozzo—" Just as he turned to his senior agent, his cell phone began buzzing in his pocket. The man frowned as he pulled the phone out flipping it open without even checking the caller ID first. "Gibbs."

" _Oh, Mr. Gibbs? This is Doris, Jessica's friend's mom?_ "

Gibbs' eyebrows rose at that, which caught the attentions of all four individuals in the room. Noticing this, Gibbs turned and headed out of the room to continue the conversation.

The four in the room glanced between each other nervously.

"What do you think that was all about?" McGee asked as he began to type away at his computer, most likely hacking into a secure area of the CIA or something along those lines. He glanced over at the other two as he typed away.

Tony shrugged as he glanced over to Ziva. "No idea. You got any ideas?"

She shook her head, her lips pursed. "I have not heard him say anything about expecting a call," she remarked, glancing towards the screen showing the documents. "I cannot think of any reason why he would receive a call…"

Mere moments later, Gibbs returned to the room, a stern look on his face. His lips were pursed and his eyes cold as he moved to stand beside Abby.

"Track Andrew's phone."

All four agents turned to Gibbs with frowns on their faces.

"What?" Tony asked.

"Track Andrew's phone," Gibbs repeated, staring at Abby. As the woman proceeded to track the phone, Gibbs turned to Tony and Ziva. "Get in contact with Alice and Kate – I want to know exactly where Andrew is."

The two agents nodded, Ziva immediately going to call Alice whilst Tony made a call to HR to get in contact with Kate's mother. Gibbs waited tensely for the next five or so minutes, resisting the urge to tap his fingers on the desk (a habit he had recently picked up from Andrew). As soon as he saw the confusion on Ziva's face, he knew something was seriously wrong.

"Andrew… has not been seen at Kate's house," Ziva informed Gibbs, pursing her lips. "At least, Alice hasn't seen him. Nor has she seen Alex."

"I'm getting the same answer from Mrs Clifford down in HR," Tony answered as he ended his call. "Kate hasn't seen either of them – she expected them to turn up a while ago, but she thought they were taking their time or something. Didn't think anything was wrong."

Gibbs pursed his lips at that. Someone not turning up on time was reason  _to_  think that something was wrong. "McGee, I need the location of Andrew's phone  _now_."

"He's not picking up," McGee responded, his fingers clacking on the keyboard. "I could probably get an approximate trace based on the phone ringing, but I can't get an accurate one unless he picks up."

"What's the general area?"

A map of the area came up on the screen. "Basically this area. Kate's house is within the area, so you'd expect it to come up… but the fact that he's not picking up his phone…"

"That is concerning when the area is so large," Ziva commented, taking a step towards the screen. "Maybe if we were to find out the time at which he dropped off Jessica…"

"We could narrow down the area considerably?" Abby finished, a smile on her face. "That could work! McGee, could you—"

"Already on it," the other agent responded as he picked up the phone on Abby's desk.

"I shall find out more about SCORPIA from contacts," Ziva announced, before glancing over at McGee.

The man sighed, rolling his eyes. "I'll get you a secure line as soon as I'm done talking to—Hello, Doris? This is Special Agent McGee from NCIS…"

Tony turned to look at Gibbs, noticing the ever so slight concerned look in the older man's eyes – one that he rarely ever saw unless he felt like someone in his family was in danger.

And this was definitely a valid situation for him to feel like that.

Which was why he wasn't surprised at all when Gibbs announced that he was going to search the area Andrew had been last seen in. And why he almost immediately volunteered himself –  _almost_  only because he was still tired, and it took his brain a little bit longer than usual to register exactly what Gibbs had said.

"Tony," Ziva called out as the two men headed out through the doors to the lab. When he looked back at her, she sent him a smirk. "Get some more coffee. You will need it."

He rolled his eyes at her as he headed through the doorway, making faces and ignoring the snort that Gibbs gave. "Yeah, yeah!"

* * *

" _This way, Alex."_

_Alex's eyes darted around as he followed the man in front of him, not fully concentrating on where they were going. He caught sight of different offices – different cubicles – where multiple people were working, all of them with headsets on as they communicated loudly with people on the other end of the line. The adolescent had to resist the temptation to peek over the desks themselves and try to have a look at what the people were really doing._

_After all, this was that group called the C.I.A. They weren't exactly the kinds of people who liked to spread around who they were and what they did on a regular basis. Heck, most people didn't even have a good opinion of them from what he heard._

_In fact, Alex was wondering why he was there in the first place._

_He stumbled to a stop when the man in front of him stopped. All he could really see of the man was red hair – he hadn't even really seen his face that much. At least, not enough to remember it._

_Uncle Ian wouldn't be impressed with that._

_The man in front of him opened a door, revealing another man on the other side – definitely older than the man who had led him there, if the grey hair was any indication. He had a stern face, which only got more stern when he spotted Alex._

" _Marks, why do you have a kid with you?" the man demanded, standing from his desk. Alex's first instinct was to shrink back, but instead he tried to stand tall and defiant – he didn't want to give the man the satisfaction of the knowledge that he was actually intimidated by him._

" _Found him snooping around one of our safehouses, sir," the man, Marks, responded. The man at the desk's scowl only got worse._

" _And what were you doing snooping around, boy?" Alex realised the man sounded more southern than anything – like, not as far as Texas, but definitely further than Virginia? He wasn't so great with accents – Ian said he'd work on that with him._

" _Nothing," Alex answered, and he mentally cursed. What a suspicious answer. Great one, Alex._

_The man approached him slowly, and again Alex resisted the urge to take a step back. "I said, what were you doing snooping around?"_

" _I-I was curious," Alex caved, stammering. "I saw a strange man going inside. He'd been acting weird since I saw him outside, s-so I decided to follow him in…"_

_The man narrowed his eyes at the boy, stepping closer to Alex and peering down at him for a few tense moments. Once he seemed satisfied, he turned away and headed back to his desk. "Return the boy to his parents."_

" _I don't have parents," Alex corrected. "I have an uncle."_

_The man looked back at Alex with a scowl, before waving him away. "Just get the boy out of my building, Marks."_

" _Yes, sir." The redhead nodded before setting a hand on Alex's shoulder, steering him out of the room and down to the building's entrance. As they walked, Alex managed one glance up at the man's face._

_Red hair, blue eyes…_

Alex's eyes shot open as soon as the face appeared, his chest heaving. Though, he wasn't sure opening his eyes was much better than keeping them shut. Wherever he was, it was pitch dark, and it was only the rumbling within his head and the unsteady rocking that reminded him of where he was and what had happened. Lifting his head with a wince, he tried to look around (even though it was dark) before finally settling for whispering. "Andrew…?"

"I'm right here," was the groan in response, and Alex turned his head towards the source of the voice. Okay, so Andrew was at least  _awake_ , which was good. He could focus on him instead of the steady throbbing in his head, or the worryingly familiar dream he'd had not long before.

"Are you…?"

"I'm fine," Andrew answered, before huffing out a laugh. "Just… a little tied up, I suppose."

Alex was confused about that for a few moments, before he attempted to move his hands and realised why Andrew had said that. They were tied together – his wrists were, at least. When he moved his legs, he realised that they weren't, which made him a little suspicious. That meant that wherever they were being taken, they'd be expected to get up and walk. That didn't narrow it down much, but it helped at least a little that they wouldn't be dragged everywhere.

"Do you know how long we've been travelling…?" Alex asked, trying to shift so that he was sitting up more comfortably. The vibrations against his shoulders and the back of his head were making him feel queasy, and he wanted to at least keep the food contents of his stomach  _in_  his stomach if he didn't know how long they were going to be in there for.

Andrew didn't answer for a few moments, and Alex pursed his lips. Had he forgotten that it was pitch black in there? He couldn't see the other boy, even if he wanted to.

"Not sure," Andrew finally answered as the van hit a particularly harsh bump, making Alex wince as he landed on his side. "I… woke up… not too long ago…" the other boy groaned. "Their driving isn't the best."

"We aren't exactly precious cargo," Alex grumbled as he finally managed to push himself up into a seated position. It wasn't very comfortable, but it was definitely better than lying on his back or his side – and it would be easier to withstand any more bumps in the road. He pushed himself back until he could feel the walls of the metal box they were sat in and leaned against it, realising it wasn't the best of ideas when he realised it was vibrating just as much as the floor. Fabulous.

"You'd think that they'd at least want to keep us alive whilst we're in here," Andrew responded, sounding very sarcastic. Sarcastic because Alex was pretty sure even he couldn't quite believe what he was saying.

"Alive, not uninjured," Alex pointed out. "As long as we aren't dead, I think they're conscience is clean."

"Oh yeah, because kidnapping two teenagers doesn't dirty their conscience enough as it is."

"Kidnapping and keeping them alive is a lot cleaner than kidnapping and killing them. Even if the killing is because they can't seem to drive on a road without potholes."

Andrew's silence in response to Alex's comment confused him, and his brows furrowed. Had he suddenly forgotten they were having a conversation? A snarky one, yes, but still a conversation, nonetheless. One without insults towards each other that Alex had, funnily enough, been enjoying.

"Andrew…?"

"Does London have potholes?"

That question took Alex by surprise. He knew it was pretty obvious that he was British – his accent was more than enough of a giveaway – but why was he suddenly asking about London? "I'm sorry, what?"

"You're British, right?"

"Well… yes."

"And you've been to London a lot?"

"…Yes…"

"So does London have potholes?"

Alex pursed his lips. He had no clue what the other male was on about… but he supposed he might as well humour him. "Not in central. The further out you go, and the less main the roads are, the more you find. They're mostly in…" He trailed off when he realised what Andrew was implying.

Potholes weren't usually found in central or largely commercial areas. The roads there were taken care of well enough that they didn't have the chance to come up.

Potholes were either found in the poorer residential areas, where councils didn't have the money or will to take care of the roads until it was absolutely necessary, the suburbs where there wasn't as much traffic travelling through and so they checked the roads for potholes less frequently, or…

"Industrial areas," Alex breathed. Where trucks travelled through often and caused the potholes due to their weights and larger wheels damaging the roads much more quickly than regular traffic would. That was when he realised that it was… actually much quieter outside the van than normal. He couldn't hear much traffic – no cars beeping, no vehicles passing or overtaking them often. As if they were in a far less frequented area. A van wouldn't be seen as suspicious at all driving into an industrial area. This was where trucks and vans belonged. This was their home turf, of sorts. "They're taking us to an industrial complex of sorts…"

"But why?" Andrew asked. "Why an industrial area?"

"It's out of the way, and not easily accessible, plus—" Alex cut himself off when he realised the van had slowed to the sound of metal grating against tarmac and was turning. Like it was entering some sort of complex, or passing through some gates. The two boys were silent as the van moved slowly, entering wherever it was meant to be going before slowly coming to a stop. Alex gulped.

They'd reached their destination. Soon enough, whoever had taken them would be coming back there to grab them and get them out of the van.

Either that, or they'd be left to suffocate and die.

And honestly, neither of those options sounded particularly nice to Alex.

* * *

Gibbs' face was stony as they arrived in front of the house Jessica was visiting for the day. It was the last place Andrew and Alex had been seen, and it was the best place to start, if anything. All they could do was follow Andrew's path and see where it led them. Turning off the ignition, he and Tony quickly got out of the car, shutting the door.

"Kate's house is in that direction," Gibbs said, pointing in the direction of the girl's house. It would be the most logical to go that way, but if Andrew was missing, then he could be anywhere.

"I'll head in this direction," Tony responded, pointing in the opposite direction to Kate's home. Gibbs gave a single nod. That meant he was heading towards the girl's home, looking for any clues as to why Andrew hadn't turned up at Kate's or answered his phone.

It was not long after they'd split up that Gibbs felt a vibrating in his pocket, and he pulled out his phone. He'd just arrived in front of Kate's house, not finding anything on the path, and flipped open his phone. "Yeah, Gibbs."

" _Boss… I found Andrew's phone._ "

Gibbs was silent, waiting for the other agent to continue. "And…?"

"… _It was dropped here, boss. There's a chip in the side from the drop… and I just spoke to some residents who saw what was going on. From what they've said… boss, I think they've been kidnapped._ "


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, friends! I have another chapter here for you!  
> Hope you all enjoy this chapter! Read on!

 

It was easy to conclude that Gibbs was at the top of the "must avoid at all costs" lists of all the agents at NCIS – or just all the staff in general. Heck, even Tony looked as awkward and afraid as he felt as he trailed behind Gibbs into the bullpen at that point. Ziva looked up as soon as she heard the elevator ding, her phone to her ear, but one look at the expression on Tony's face told her to duck back down at carry on making those calls. McGee didn't even bother looking up as Gibbs and Tony walked in, having seen Ziva's movements out of the corner of his eye and deducing that it was not safe at all to open his mouth or make any sort of eye contact with Gibbs.

As soon as Gibbs began talking, all three agents flinched.

"What've you got?" he called out to no one in particular. Despite this, Ziva was the first to speak.

"I have managed to obtain some semblance of SCORPIA and its aims," she announced as she put down her phone, moving towards the screen. A few documents appeared on the screen. "I have not managed to contact many of my contacts yet, but the ones I have contacted have informed me that SCORPIA is an underground organisation… or, at least, it was. The organisation aimed to provide services to any and all governments around the world, as well as individuals – their reasoning was that if the money could be provided, they would carry it out. And they carried out anything and everything, from assassinations to trafficking." Her nose crinkled at that in distaste. "Many of their activities were lawless, and many involved the killing of innocents to achieve their goals." She clicked a button on the remote, and multiple news articles appeared on the screen. "Fortunately, the organisation has dissolved. It was brought down by an agent – of which agency, it has not been specified, though there is a rumour that it was the British who did so – and many of their agents have either been arrested or have gone into hiding."

"Which means that any of them could have come back to get revenge on the Petty Officer, and we wouldn't know," Tony responded with a scowl. "They're all in hiding. They could look like any civilian on the street and we wouldn't realise."

"Unless individuals from the CIA case files are cross-referenced," McGee pointed out.

"As we have already found, much of the information from the case has been redacted," Ziva pointed out. Noticing the look on Gibbs' face, she backtracked. "But I will attempt to obtain as much information as possible from my contacts to cross-reference faces."

Gibbs nodded, leaving Ziva to rush back to her desk and carry out what she had proposed.

"I've managed to gain access to and scrub through all videos of that wall at the front of the hotel," McGee explained, "and I've managed to narrow it all down to one timeframe." He typed a couple of things on his keyboard, and a few videos popped up on the screen. All of them were focused on the wall by the parking garage, where Ziva had spotted the etching on the wall, and were paused at a point where a man in a suit was leaning against the wall. "This man has been spotted multiple times in the exact same position, at the exact same place. He appears to be doing nothing but waiting for someone, but at the same time…" McGee zoomed in on the same face. His eyes seemed to be focused on something. "Take a look at this." He pressed play on one of the videos. Though pixelated, it was clear to see that the man's mouth was moving, as if he was speaking to someone. "Looking through all these videos, the man seems to be mouthing the exact same thing to whoever he's speaking to. The only difference was on the last day he was spotted – and dates on footage match that with the day the Petty Officer was killed… and the last day Alex was actually spotted on hotel property. Look."

One of the videos was then focused on, brought to the front, and played. All four agents could see the man standing on the corner, as usual, staring off into the distance. As McGee had mentioned, a fair-haired male was soon spotted exiting the hotel through the main entrance, alongside two individuals that the agents (if they assumed the fair-haired male was Alex, and were going along with the story they'd been told) concluded to be Sabina and Elizabeth, the girl's mother. Alex appeared to notice the man and falter, but soon enough he had caught up with the two females and was heading off, most likely to Elizabeth's car.

The video was paused, and all four agents shared a look.

"Why would a SCORPIA agent be situated outside the hotel…?" Ziva asked, a deep frown set on her face. "The man did not even look in Alex's direction. If he had intended to kill Alex…"

"He would have done so there and then," Tony finished, "or even earlier. Before Alex had left the hotel."

"Any time he was alone," Ziva added. "Alex was not the target, unless he was being observed."

"But the Petty Officer's house is too far from there for him to be a target," McGee added, bringing up a map to show the distances between the two buildings. "They had to  _drive_  to get the area. Unless we check everyone in the building who  _could_  have been a target of SCORPIA at any point in time, it's safe to assume that Alex might have been the target."

"If Alex was the target, he would have been found  _dead_  at the Petty Officer's house," Ziva argued.

"McGee, get a list of everyone staying at that hotel," Gibbs ordered, a deep frown set on his face. "We need to look through all histories and find connections."

"We can narrow it down," Tony suggested. "The Pleasures are there for a convention, right? Whoever's being targeted would most likely be there for that."

"It'd be easier to obtain a list of names for the convention," McGee agreed, standing to grab his things. "I'll head to the hotel straight away to obtain it all."

"No, I'll go with DiNozzo."

McGee looked confused when Gibbs said he would go with Tony, but noticing the dark look on the senior agent's face he realised what had happened. That, and Tony had sent a text before they'd arrived, warning them of what had happened. "I'll get all traffic cam data possible from the street."

"I will put out a BOLO on the boys," Ziva added, turning to her desk to make the calls.

Tony walked over to his desk, opening the bottom drawer and pulling out what seemed to be an energy drink. "Look at how desperate I am, going into my emergency supplies," he grumbled as he stood back up, before turning to follow Gibbs out of the bullpen. He narrowed his eyes at Ziva as he took a swig. "Don't say a word," he snapped.

"That beautiful face won't last much longer if you pump chemicals like that into it," McGee teased, earning a glare from Tony as he entered the elevator.

"Shut up, McGee!"

* * *

As soon as the van had stopped, Alex knew that they had no chance of getting out of this unscathed. After all, they'd been taken hostage and thrown into the back of a van. He didn't know who by, but he knew that they weren't exactly the most professional of people, considering they were kidnapped in broad daylight.

Amateurs.

Hearing the slams of the front doors, he almost didn't expect anyone to come back for him and Andrew. It was morbid, he knew, but he also knew that it was perfectly likely that whoever had wanted him kidnapped also wanted him dead, and asphyxiation would have been a lovely, painful way to do it.

The sudden sunlight streaming in through the back doors of the van (which were to his left, he realised) forced him to shut his eyes tightly to protect them from the bright light. His eyes didn't open until he felt himself being roughly pulled out of the back of the vehicle, yelping as it happened. Scuffling and yelling from just beside him told Alex that Andrew was undergoing the same thing and was resisting a whole lot more than Alex was.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Alex realised he was still being help up by the scruff of his neck. "I'm not a dog, you know," he snarked as he tried to pull away, though that was difficult when your feet just about touched the ground. "I can walk on my own."

"You can also run," a gruff voice responded, before the man began to half-guide, half-drag Alex in the direction he wanted him to go. "Not getting off that easy, boy. Now move."

Alex merely scowled as he half-walked, half-stumbled into the direction he was being led. It wasn't long before he realised it was a large warehouse – plain enough looking from the outside, he supposed, and not suspicious enough for people to think that there were individuals being held hostage there.

Fantastic.

It wasn't until they got through the doors that things started kicking off.

Or rather,  _Andrew_  started kicking off.

Alex didn't even need to turn to know that the scuffing he heard was Andrew digging his feet into the ground and trying to push back against the men who were dragging them. The male let out a yell as he kept on pushing back, still trying to dig his feet in, when there was a sudden hitting sound, and Alex winced. That had definitely sounded like it hurt. The blonde couldn't help but shudder when he felt a pair of lips close to his ear.

"You try any of that, and we'll hit you twice as hard."

Alex grit his teeth, almost tempted to show them that if he put up a fight it would be a whole lot  _worse_ , but stayed silent, just following where they were being led.

The warehouse they were in was large – or, at least, the room of the warehouse they were in was large. The floor appeared to be made of some sort of stone, just like the walls, everything some sort of shade of grey. Against the walls, there were some crates; empty spaces beside some of the crates suggested that there had been more that were removed, but those that remained were clearly old and rotting. There were no windows in the building at eye-level or below – everything was up near the ceiling, barely able to give any light – and the only other doors were a large door opposite Alex, likely for moving crates (which is what the warehouse was intended for in the first place) and two doors against the wall to the left, one of which had a window in it. That gave Alex a bit of hope, until he realised that there was a huge chain and padlock against the door handle, firmly holding it in place.

Basically, the only way out appeared to be the way they came in.

Without warning, Alex was suddenly thrown down to the ground, landing hard on his shoulder without his hands free to catch him. He groaned as he rolled over onto his back as Andrew was also thrown to the ground, the other boy being fortunate enough to land on his back.

"The boss'll be up to see you guys in a sec," one of the men mentioned as the two of them left the building. "He knows you're here, so don't try any funny stuff. He'll know."

Alex barely managed to look up as the two men left, leaving the teens all alone in the building – or, at least, that room. Gritting his teeth, it took him a few attempts before he was able to push himself up into a sitting position, and he looked over at Andrew. He thought the other teen looked fine, other than some bruising that was forming around his eye. In fact, he would have thought him completely fine if he hadn't realised Andrew was breathing erratically and staring up at the ceiling blankly.

"Andrew…?" Alex asked hesitantly.

The hissed curse Alex heard in response told him that something was most definitely wrong. Andrew did not swear. Not even when Gibbs wasn't around.

"What's wrong?" Alex demanded, forcing himself up into a sitting position. The paleness, and the erratic breathing, only made Alex think of that time when they were walking back from the park… when he'd reacted in the exact same way…

Before Andrew could even splutter something out, a figure emerged from the door beside the chained one with the window. Or rather, three figures emerged: two large men, and a significantly smaller man walking behind them. As they neared the boys, the larger men parted to make way for the smaller man, who simply smirked at the two teens on the ground.

"Well, well, well," he said smugly, clapping his hands together. "What do we have here? Two boys clearly out of their depth."

It was then that Alex recognised the man. He knew his face. He wasn't the man on the corner, appearing casual but clearly watching out for someone; no, if he had been, Alex would have recognised him right away, and he would be dead right now. That, and if he had been spotted, he would have been arrested right away. There was no way he would have been able to hide his identity on American soil.

But he was definitely someone who had told the man on the corner about him.

"Walker…?" he managed to ask, a look of disbelief on his face. Not that he hadn't been arrested or jailed, no. More that he was still  _alive_  in the first place…

And that he'd come after him.

"Alex Rider," Walker greeted in return, a smile on his face. Not a pleasant one, in Alex's opinion, but a smile nonetheless. It scared Alex to see the man smile, knowing what he was capable of. "You know, I'm glad you could join us here." Walker's eyes flickered over to Andrew, his sadistic grin growing. "And you brought a friend!"

Alex scowled heavily at that.

"Oh, don't frown, Alex. You'll get wrinkles."

The tease only made Alex scowl even more, making Walker laugh in return.

"You know this asshole?" The rasping voice made Alex turn towards Andrew, and his lips quirked up briefly in relief. If anything, those words were just a sign that Andrew was capable of being as snarky as ever. In other words, now he was fine. Probably because he had someone to distract him from whatever had him shaken before.

"Ah, so the friend speaks? Let me introduce myself as I get your bonds off." He looked towards the two men and gestured at the boys, and the men approached the two and knelt beside the boys' bonds. "My name… well, all you really need to know is that people call me Walker. American by birth, agent by li—ah, ah, ah, Alex." He raised an eyebrow at the fair-haired teen, who he'd noticed had tensed up as soon as his bonds were being removed. "No violence whilst I'm speaking. I need you both to listen to my villainous backstory." He was mocking them, and Alex knew it, but there was nothing he could do about it. So both teens just lay there as Walker continued to speak. "As I was saying before I was so  _rudely_  interrupted – honestly, I thought the British had more manners than that – I'm an agent by lifestyle… or, at least, I  _was_. Someone leaked information about me, and a friend of mine… but that's taken care of." Walker's expression turned curious, his hand coming up to rub his chin. "Imagine how amused I was to find that not only was more than one of my targets nearby, but the infamous  _Alex Rider_  was here too. In fact, a couple of my own bumped into him without realising who he was! How funny."

Andrew looked over at Alex with wide eyes. "How does he know you…?" he asked slowly, though he dreaded what the answer would be. Whatever the reason was, it definitely wasn't a good one.

Before Alex could speak, Walker waved the question aside. "Oh, Andrew, you can ask him those questions later," he said dismissively, before approaching the darker-haired teen. "After all, you'll have quite some time to get properly acquainted. Staying together in protective custody doesn't exactly provide you with the opportunity to get to know each other." He knelt down beside Andrew as the cuffs were being removed, smiling down at him. "As for you, well, you probably have almost as much to tell him, don't you?"

As Andrew stiffened, Walker reached down and took the boy's jaw in his hand, giving him a sadistic smile. "Welcome back, Parkson," he murmured. "I hope this stay is better than your last." Releasing the boy, he stood, before turning to head towards the door he'd entered from. "Now, if you boys would follow me, I'll show you to your room. It's not five-star quality, but I'm sure it's good enough for the two of you. Come along."

Alex glanced over at Andrew to see that he had turned white as a sheet, his eyes wide, and he gritted his teeth behind pursed lips.

They were going to get out of there… and he would make Walker pay.

* * *

Pulling up to the hotel for the third time that week, Gibbs gave a sigh. As much as he loved his job, the people he had to question, and the danger it put those he loved the most in, made him want to shoot someone. Anyone. Preferably not his team.

Tony shot a look at Gibbs when he heard the sigh, seemingly debating as to whether he should question him about it or get on with the job. When he realised he'd been sitting there for too long, and Gibbs was now staring at  _him_ , he decided against asking him and simply got out of the car, shutting the door behind him. As soon as he heard a second car door shut behind him, Tony headed towards the building, knowing that Gibbs would be following, and walked straight over to the reception desk, flashing his badge before any questions could be asked.

"I'm going to need a list of everyone attending the convention this week and staying in this hotel," the agent demanded, giving the receptionist his steeliest look to prevent any arguments. The young woman stood there barely got a chance to speak before she was rummaging through all the files in the desk, searching for what the agent wanted.

Gibbs would have joined him, had the elevator not arrived at just that moment, a familiar man walking out of it, cane in hand as he hobbled. The two pairs of eyes met, the man looking a little surprised to see the agent standing there.

"Agent Gibbs? What a—"

"We need to talk," Gibbs cut the man off, walking briskly towards him.

Edward's eyebrows rose. "Talk? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm on my way to—"

"About Alex.  _Now_."

Edward pursed his lips. As much as he wanted to head to this seminar… he supposed he could be late. Or miss it. The urgent look in Gibbs' eyes told him there was a high chance he wouldn't make it at all.

"I suppose we can head back to my suite." The man turned and headed towards the elevator, and Gibbs followed. As Gibbs got in and turned around, he spotted Tony watching him intently.

All he could do was give him a nod as the elevator doors slid closed.


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It's me - I'm back with another chapter! Anyway, since I'm done with exams and I'm now at home, I really hope to get my writing done faster, but of course I've got money to earn... so please bear with me if I don't write as quickly as anticipated.  
> Anyway, read on!

 

"Alex has been  _what_?!"

Gibbs didn't intend to come out with it. He really hadn't. But Edward was  _still_  refusing to answer his questions, and he was getting urgent. Not only was Alex's life probably on the line, but Andrew's as well just by association. They needed to get to the boys before whoever had taken them had finished dealing with Alex, and fast.

They needed to know about Alex's past, and what possible connections he could have to the case and, possibly, Scorpia. They needed to figure out why Alex was now being targeted – whether it was because he was a witness, or something more.

"Alex has gone missing," Gibbs explained again, patiently. "We have no idea where he went, but we have a feeling about who he may be with. To confirm it, we need information that  _you_  have not provided."

"I have provided everything I can," Edward snapped, glaring at Gibbs harshly. "You  _allowed_  Alex to get kidnapped! He was in your protection and you  _let him go_!" He hobbled closer to the agent, attempting to get in his face. "Once you get him back, I want him out of your protection and here  _with his family_."

Just at that moment, the door to the room opened, a wide-eyed Sabina standing at the entrance. "Dad? There's an agent down in the lobby and he's—" She cut herself off when she spotted Gibbs, lost for words for a few moments, before her expression hardened and she pursed her lips. Her arms folded as she spoke, "Agent Gibbs. You're here."

Gibbs resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her, like he would if it were Andrew, and gave her a simple nod. "Sabina."

She simply scowled at Gibbs. "There's a man in the lobby asking for all the names of people here for the conference. Is he yours?"

Gibbs gave a single nod.

"Why do you need to know? Are the people here in danger?"

"A man thought to work for SCORPIA was seen to be lurking outside the hotel around the time of your last departure with Alex from the hotel," Gibbs explained calmly, and all stubbornness and anger seemed to melt from Sabina and Edward's faces.

"What…?"

"He's been lurking on that corner for at least the past week. We need to know whether the man was here for someone, or whether it was a coincidence…" He trailed off when he noticed the troubled looks on both of their faces, and narrowed his eyes at Sabina. "What aren't you telling me?"

The girl looked towards her father, before back at Gibbs. Before she could open her mouth, though, the door opened, and Elizabeth entered the room, appearing mildly frustrated.

"Sabina, darling, you know that I'm nowhere near as fast as you are. You need to stop running off when you know I'm…" The woman's voice faded when she spotted Gibbs, the shopping bags in her hands dropping to the floor. That was when she noticed the grim expressions on her husband and her daughter's faces. "What's happened now?"

* * *

All Alex had going through his mind was the fact that he could literally feel the waves of panic rolling off Andrew as they were pulled to their feet and made to follow Walker. Alex himself was furious – furious that he hadn't seen the signs earlier. Sure, his memory had disappeared for a while, but he'd been foolish enough to believe that Walker had just disappeared. Maybe he'd hoped that he'd been killed, or lost, or arrested. But this man was ex-CIA. He was from an intelligence agency. Of course he knew how to get under the radar. Of course he knew how to hide.

Of course he had contacts that probably got him out of trouble and helped him look for Alex and hunt him down.

Really, Alex knew that he should've known better than to think that because he was out of England, he was safe. He wasn't safe. He made enemies all over the world, and now he'd just pulled an innocent guy into his business.

Not that  _that_  was anything new, but it still made him feel horrible.

But Andrew's physical discomfort was not because he had simply been kidnapped by the guy who had taken Alex. The blonde could see it in his eyes. There was something more about this kidnapping that had struck a chord with him, and Alex wanted to find out what it was.

Then again, he had a feeling that there were things that Andrew wanted to find out as well.

The pair of teens were guided through one of the doors – not the one they had entered through, but the only door without a window. The one door that Alex could just tell led further into the building instead of outside and somewhere safer.

He practically held his breath as the door was opened, the padlocked door that led to freedom taunting him out o the corner of his eyes. He knew if the door wasn't padlocked, he and Andrew would've been out of there. Not being led to… wherever.

The staircase that the opened door led to (courtesy of Walker) was dark and musty, and Alex had to strain his eyes to see the staircase below him, so that he wouldn't fall. He got the feeling that, since no one had bothered to warn them, these men didn't exactly care whether or not he and Andrew stumbled or fell down the stairs. They just needed the two of them alive.

At the base of the staircase they walked into what looked like an old basement – basically a dimly lit corridor, with storage cells lining either side that must have been used for non-perishable items at one point in time. At that moment, though, all the storage cells appeared to be locked, with cobwebs and dust on the ceiling and the tops of the walls. Alex shuddered when he spotted a spider scuttle along the dark concrete floor, before squeezing under one of the doors and disappearing.

"I apologise for the dirt and mess, boys," Walker commented offhandedly as he led them further down the corridor. "We moved in only a couple of weeks ago, and haven't had the chance to do a full clean yet. Apparently, the previous users left this place in a mess. Had to clean blood and grime off the floor upstairs. It took  _forever_."

By now, Alex and Andrew were walking side by side, and Alex didn't miss how Andrew's face blanched at that. He was  _definitely_  going to ask about that later on.

Eventually, they reached a cell partway along the corridor –  _not at either end_ , Alex thought,  _because that would be too obvious_  – and the door was pulled open, squeaking loudly as it revealed a dark, empty cell. A light switch was flicked, and a single bulb hanging from the ceiling flickered on, lighting up the cold and dusty space. It seemed as if no effort had been put into the room at all, with the bare bricks clearly visible, and the concrete floor hard and rough. At least, that was how it felt as Alex and Andrew were both shoved into the room and landed on the ground, scraping their arms and cheeks.

"Now," Walker started, standing at the door, "I was going to start my interrogations today – you know, the usual asking and doing whatever I want to get what I need – but I thought it would be nice to at least give you two a few hours to settle in. Get used to the place. Maybe have a chat or two, or whatever you teenagers get up to nowadays." He smirked at the boys. "I'll be back a bit later. Don't wear yourselves out too much – I'll still need you awake for later." Backing out of the doorway, he gave the two a little finger wave as they glared at him. "Ta-ta, boys!"

Alex was barely holding back the urge to jump forward and attempt to attack Walker when the door was slammed shut, a click signifying that it was now locked.

The two boys turned to look at each other, fear and uncertainty clear in their eyes.

* * *

The hotel room was practically silent as the three individuals – Sabina, Edward, and Gibbs – sat in the small seating area the room provided, the only sound heard being that of the kettle boiling in the kitchen, where Liz was making them all cups of tea.

Despite needing to know urgently about what was going on with Alex, Liz insisted on making them all tea – though, Gibbs had the feeling it was to calm her own nerves about the situation more than anything. It was only a few minutes before Liz returned with a tray, holding three mugs of tea and a mug of coffee (Gibbs didn't drink tea, and he told them that plainly). Serving them all, there were only a few more moments of silence as Liz herself sat down, before Edward spoke, swallowing a gulp of the hot liquid.

"What is it, exactly, that you need to know?" the man asked the agent, looking both wary and exhausted.

Gibbs took a sip of his coffee as he tried to phrase his question in his head, silently praising Liz for the coffee – it wasn't actually that bad. "Where did Alex get the bruises?" He thought he might as well go for the obvious one, and perhaps that would lead to further questions about who exactly Alex was, and what his past entailed.

Sabina shared a look with her father, and there appeared to be some sort of silent battle between them. Eventually, it appeared as if Edward relented, and Sabina spoke up, looking directly at Gibbs. "Alex used to get in fights a lot," she answered. Before Gibbs could ask anything else, though, she continued. "They weren't fights at school. They were… fights with more important people. Bodyguards. Trained martial artists. He got hurt a lot when he was…" She trailed off, not sure how much more she could say, and turned to her father. At the nod she received, she decided to continue. "…when he was in England. He often travelled, and tended to get into trouble."

Gibbs raised an eyebrow. Alex had no parents – how could he have travelled so often? Voicing his question, Sabina's lips pursed before she answered.

"He had…  _guardians_ ," she responded, sounding a little bitter at the last word. "Basically, they made him do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and they blackmailed him to do it."

At the mention of blackmail, Gibbs' eyes hardened. So not only had Alex been used, he'd been blackmailed?  _What the hell_?

"Alex only came to America because they'd not only lost their leverage, they'd destroyed him along with it."

"And what was the leverage?" Gibbs had placed his mug of coffee down now, leaning forward to show he was listening intently to Sabina.

She smiled sadly. "It was his old housekeeper," she said softly.

As Gibbs' eyebrows rose, Edward decided to speak. "You have to understand, Agent Gibbs, that Alex had no parents. His uncle worked abroad for most of Alex's life, leaving the housekeeper as Alex's nanny of sorts. Essentially, she became more like a parent to him, or older sister." The older man looked sorrowful as he smiled slightly at Gibbs. "She was all he had left once his uncle also passed. These guardians legally were his caretakers, but they didn't do much for him, if at all. When I decided to take Alex and foster him… he looked well and truly broken. His entire world had been shattered."

Gibbs could understand that. The same thing had happened to the kids he was fostering; they had lost everything – their home, their parents, and essentially their livelihoods. The only difference was his two had each other; Alex didn't appear to have anyone.

The agent wanted to stop there – really, he did – but there was still one more thing he needed to find out; one more thing that he needed to know for this case. Otherwise, they'd be lost without it.

"Does Alex have any connections to an agency called  _SCORPIA_?"

At that, all three Pleasured blanched, their eyes wide. The silence in the room that followed Gibbs' question was deafening, and the man took that as an answer that, yes, Alex did have connections to SCORPIA. But they weren't really telling him how. Or rather, they hadn't told him yet.

"How do you know about them…?" Sabina finally asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper, and Gibbs felt as if he'd touched a sensitive topic without intending to.

The agent straightened in his seat. "The man that Alex spotted on the corner of the hotel was found to be SCORPIA. We found an engraving that signified their presence in the wall. At the moment, we think that anyone could be a target for them, which is why I have someone obtaining the names of everyone attending the conference—"

"No need," Edward responded in a clipped voice, his eyes hardening. "If SCORPIA are here, then they're here for one of two people."

Gibbs' brows furrowed. Alex was one of those people, and that much was obvious. After all, he had been kidnapped – though, whether it was for previous tie-ins or just what was happening in this case, Gibbs wasn't sure. But…

"Who's the second?" he asked, looking Edward in the eye.

The father glanced at his wife and daughter, both of whom had worried expressions on their faces, before turning back to Gibbs.

"It'll be me."

Gibbs' expression darkened at that. If those agents weren't looking for Alex… then they were looking for Edward. And Alex was good leverage in both cases.

"My daughter and I, we've been involved in… Alex's past before," Edward explained hesitantly. "If SCORPIA don't know that they can use us to get to Alex by now, then they've missed out on a lot."

"Not to mention that the main part of SCORPIA has dissolved," Sabina added, "which is what Alex told us. Meaning that whatever's left… they want to get revenge. Any agent could get Alex. A  _smart_  agent would come for us too."

That startled Gibbs. The main part of SCORPIA was dissolved… but they were still coming after Alex? The last question nagged at his mind, and he glanced at the window before asking it. "How was Alex connected to SCORPIA?"

Sabina looked nervous, looking down at her lap and wringing her ands as her father refused to answer, only giving Gibbs silence. "I… I think that's not for us to tell," she finally responded. "We've said a lot. Alex isn't here. He hasn't given us permission to say stuff, and we've really said a lot already." At the irritated look on Gibbs' face, she sighed. "Look, Alex has been through a lot, okay. And a lot of it is actually really sensitive. It kind of sucks to say… but that's for Alex to tell you, not us."

"We've given you as much as you  _need_ , Agent Gibbs," Edward added quietly. "All you need to know is that Alex and SCORPIA have never been on the best of terms, and that they have crossed paths multiple times before."

Gibbs wanted to stay irritated, but he really couldn't. They had a point. He had everything he needed. Maybe not everything he  _wanted_ , but he could return. Standing, he thanked Liz for the coffee, which had now started to go cold.

"Two agents will be here in an hour," Gibbs informed them as he was guided towards the door by Mrs Pleasure. "They'll be here to monitor your surroundings during the conference."

The look on Sabina's face told Gibbs that she was going to argue about them actually needing security, but one sharp glare from her mother stopped her from saying anything.

"Thank you, Agent Gibbs," Liz responded for her husband and daughter, giving him a soft smile. "We do hope that the next time we meet, it will be in more… fortunate circumstances."

The grey-haired man nodded, sending one last wave to Edward and Sabina, before leaving the hotel room. As soon as he was sure he was out of earshot of the room, he pulled out his phone and dialled Tony's number.

" _Hey, boss, I've got all the names of the people at the convention. Sent them all over to McGee to have them checked over._ "

"No need," Gibbs responded as he pressed the 'down' button on the elevator, waiting for one to arrive to take him down. "I have an idea of who SCORPIA were looking for. Meet me at the car."

" _Oh… got it, boss._ "

* * *

"So… what now?"

The two boys had been sitting in the room for what had felt like ages, but what Alex was pretty sure had only been five minutes. He wasn't sure. He didn't have a watch on him, and Andrew had thrown his phone down as evidence so that they could be found. Not that Alex knew whether it was going well or not so far, but the fact that people could look for them comforted him a bit.

Maybe these people would actually try to look for him.

At that moment, though, Alex and Andrew were sat in the cell, leaning against opposite walls and facing each other. Both attempted to appear relaxed, but it was clear from the paleness of Andrew's face and the agitated expressions they both had on that neither of them was particularly relaxed, both waiting for the moment that Walker would saunter back into the room and do whatever he wanted.

Alex shrugged slightly in response to Andrew's question, genuinely having no idea about what would happen next. Walker wanted them to sit in there and chat, or whatever, but what was there to talk about? They barely spoke as it was.

Or maybe… maybe he could get some answers to the questions that had nagged him since they'd arrived? Andrew probably wouldn't provide them, but it was worth a shot. Still, he couldn't just ask them straight up.

"We could play a game?" Alex suggested, attempting to seem nonchalant. From the raised eyebrow Andrew gave him, he had a feeling that it didn't quite work as well as he'd hoped.

"A game?" Andrew looked less than impressed. "What kind of game?"

"A questions game."

Andrew scowled at that. "What kinds of questions?"

"Any questions you want," Alex suggested. "I mean… I'll start?" When Andrew just continued to stare at him, he decided to go ahead and ask anyway. "What's your favourite colour?"

Somehow, Andrew had managed to anticipate that question. "Green. Yours?"

"Blue. Age?"

"Fifteen. You?"

"Same."

Andrew blinked at that. He didn't know how old he'd expected Alex to really be, but it certainly wasn't the same age as him.

"Favourite number?" Alex asked.

Andrew's brows furrowed at that. "Uh… nine. Favourite sport?"

"Football."

"Normal football, or soccer?"

Alex snorted. "First of all, that's two questions. Secondly, our football  _is_  normal."

Andrew rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah, sure."

"Best subject?"

"It's a tie between Woodwork and Literature at the moment. Favourite book series?"

"Harry Potter."

"Oooh, good choice."

Alex raised a single eyebrow at Andrew. "You like the series as well?"

Andrew shrugged a little. "It's the only one I've really read more than once. It's a good series."

Alex smiled at that. "Definitely. Last book you read?"

"Honestly? Can't remember."

The two boys laughed at that, and Alex realised he could empathise. He honestly couldn't remember the last book he read either. Wow. Had it been that long?

"Your best subject?"

Alex had to pause. What had his best subject been? He'd been an all-around student, last he recalled. He didn't have a best. But he did have a favourite. "Physics."

Andrew crinkled his nose at that, causing Alex to let out a snort.

"Not a fan?"

"Physics is  _disgusting_."

The two continued on this way, asking each other questions – some small, some deep, some with amusing answers that neither of them had expected, but all that came to an end when they heard the click of a door being unlocked, and the creak of an old door being pushed open. Both boys froze, midway through laughing at something stupid that had been said (most likely by Andrew) and looked over at the door to see Walker stood there, hands in pockets as he smirked down at the two.

"Well, it's nice to see that you've both been getting along!" he said cheerily. "Unfortunately, I'm going to need Alex for a little while. Don't worry, I'm bring him back in one piece!"

Alex noticed the worried expression on Andrew's face, and knew that the other boy had at least some sort of idea of what Alex might go through; after all, if your kidnapper requested to see you alone in private, it was never a good thing. Alex also knew that if Andrew knew about his past with Walker, that he'd be even more worried for what Alex was going to go through.

Still, pushing himself off the floor slowly, Alex resolved to keep it from Andrew as much as he could. The other boy didn't need to know about what Alex was going to go through, what horrible memories Walker as about to pull out of the shadows; what skeletons he was going to drag free from Alex's closet. Andrew just needed to keep his sanity.

And Alex was determined to do that – at least, that's what he told himself as Walker and a couple of guards led him out of the door to whatever the man had in store for him.


	16. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So, it turns out that even though I'm on holidays, I'm working a lot so I don't have as much time or energy to write as I originally thought. But, I'm still hoping to get this all rewritten for you guys by the end of the year, if not by the end of the summer. Still got a fair way to go, but I know I can do it!  
> So, I hope you're all well, and I hope you look forward to what I've got in store for you guys! Read on!

"I have managed to obtain all of my information on SCORPIA."

Gibbs didn't know whether he was glad or irritated that Ziva had cornered himself and Tony as soon as they'd stepped into the bullpen, hands crammed with sheets of information that she most likely received from her contacts. Stepping out from behind her desk, the man noticed she had a grim expression on her face as she began to read some of the information from the sheets.

"As I mentioned earlier, SCORPIA were an underground agency, working for whoever paid, and did whatever they could to get the job done. They were brought down by the British," she confirmed, "earlier this year. The exact mission information has been obscured from myself, but a contact in the Middle East tells me that it was not a particularly clean one – a mysterious British agent was involved, of whom I do not know the details as no one has come into contact with them since. This apparently took place in Egypt." Flipping through her sheets of paper, she furrowed her brows. "However, from what I have obtained from the files McGee made available to me—"

"You're welcome," McGee called out from his desk, interjecting.

"—it seems as if the CIA have not had too many interactions with SCORPIA this decade." She looked slightly confused at this. "At least, no known ones on record. Other than the run in Marks had a few years ago, I have found two separate occasions. The strange thing is… on these three meetings with SCORPIA in the past few years, two of them have been with the British; an unnamed British agent. This unnamed agent has been mentioned in another mission also. And all three missions with the unnamed agent have taken place within the last year." She pursed her lips. "All of those missions have been under the supervision of Joe Byrne. Who is currently  _off the grid_."

"Retired?" Tony asked as he moved to take the sheets from Ziva, brows furrowed.

"My contacts in the CIA are not sure. It has not been confirmed. It is just known that since the mission in Egypt, Byrne simply handed in his report, packed his bags, and left."

"What about the British agent?" Gibbs asked.

"It is apparently the biggest kept secret of MI6," she explained. "My contacts there refuse to tell me of it, though they hinted that he not only has a high success rate… but his participation is not legal."

"Why are the Brits using an illegal agent?" Tony asked incredulously.

"I do not know, but I do know that they would not be the first," she responded, sounding almost irritated. "Nevertheless, it seems as if this agent is who we have to find? Perhaps they are in the country, and SCORPIA are now targeting them. Perhaps they are at the hotel."

Gibbs turned that over in his mind with what Edward had told him. Earlier, he'd said that  _he_  was the target, and that SCORPIA had been coming for Edward as a way to get to Alex… but they hadn't said why they were going for Alex. They hadn't even said how Alex and SCORPIA were connected.

"Anything on the boys yet?" Gibbs asked McGee, turning to him suddenly. The younger agent shook his head, not appearing the smallest bit phased at the sudden change of topic.

"There aren't many cameras about, and there's a fair bit of data to scrub through," the agent explained. "Add that to the fact that it doesn't look as if these things have been cleaned since they've been installed…"

"You will find something," Ziva told him reassuringly, though the expression on her face looked more determined than reassuring. "We will find them." Glancing over at Gibbs, she pursed her lips. "I have not received anything back on the BOLO, though. But I will get a start on attempting to obtain information about that British agent."

"I'll start looking up background info on everyone at the hotel—" Tony started, only to be cut off by Gibbs.

"Start with the Pleasures and Alex," he ordered. At the looks on the other agents' faces, he decided to elaborate. "I spoke to Edward and Sabina."

"What did they say?" McGee asked, brows furrowed.

"Alex has been tied in with SCORPIA before."

Ziva's eyes narrowed at that, looking between Gibbs and the sheets she held in her hands. The sheets that contained all of the information she found. "Is Alex not British…?" she asked slowly. At the looks on the men's faces, she decided to explain her thoughts. "Perhaps… if this is not the first time Alex has come face-to-face with SCORPIA… he may or may not know who this British agent was… which could explain in part his kidnapping. Other than, of course, being present on the scene of the Petty Officer's murder."

There were a few moments of silence, before Gibbs focused a steely look on Tony. "Everything about the Pleasures and Alex.  _Everything_."

"Got it, boss," Tony responded sharply, dashing to his desk to do as he was told. The other two followed suit, and soon enough the clacking of fingers on keyboards and Ziva's voice as she began to make calls (in another language, mind you) floated through the bullpen.

Turning on his heel, he walked briskly towards the elevator that would lead him down to Abby's lab. Maybe the others were busy trying to find Alex and Andrew… but he was going to find that Lisa Harrison. And find out  _exactly_  why that Petty Officer was targeted.

* * *

"So… Alex…"

The fair-haired male was currently sitting in what was most likely one of the other cells – he wasn't exactly sure, since as soon as he'd stepped out with Walker a cloth bag had been hastily thrown over his head and he'd been spun a few times like he was playing some sort of childish game, but the walls and flooring looked pretty similar to what he'd been sitting in approximately ten minutes before.

At that moment in time, Alex was sat on a stool in the middle of the mysterious room, wrists bound behind him so that he couldn't get up, though nothing was holding his feet down. Somehow, he felt as if that little "act of trust" from Walker was more of a test, to see what Alex would do. Alex didn't know what the punishment would be if he broke that trust.

Walker, on the other hand, was strolling freely through the room, moving back and forth between the walls and making his way around Alex's chair gradually. The guards that had escorted Alex were stood by the door, staring ahead blankly, as if waiting for an order. "I don't believe you've met my boys…?"

Alex resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I don't believe we've had the chance to get acquainted," Alex responded drily.

"Ah, no matter. Names are not important at the moment, but you will get to know each other well soon enough." Walker paused in front of Alex, sending him a warning look. "Just know that if you make a single mistake, you will get to know each other sooner rather than later."

Alex returned the look with a steely gaze of his own, and Walker cracked a grin at that before beginning to move on.

"Anyway, I'm going to assume you have no idea what we're on about so that you don't give us any stupid questions." Now Walker was stood behind Alex, looking down at his nails as if he was disinterested in the current conversation. It was, in fact, the complete opposite. "You were spotted approaching a very important target of a very important person, who we were told to take out. Fortunately for you, my idiot goons did not recognise you or they would've killed you on the spot. Unfortunately for you, it has been revealed that you have been working very closely with a piece of evidence that we did not know about before – a piece of evidence that we need to destroy."

Alex was trying as hard as he could to not give anything away. He wasn't sure whether it was working, but he was going to keep trying until he was called out on it.

"Where is it?"

Alex gave a feeble shrug – feeble only because he couldn't move his arms very far when they were bound tightly. "Dunno."

Walker's anger flared briefly before he forced a (very fake) smile onto his face. "Alex… Alex, Alex, Alex…"

"Yes?"

"We need to know where that piece of evidence is…"

"I just told you – I dunno." Alex knew he was a good liar. Considering the way he was raised, and the sorts of things he'd been through for the past year or so, he'd had to learn how to lie through his teeth without batting an eyelash. Sometimes it didn't quite work, but most of the time it did. He was dearly hoping that this time would be part of the "most of the time" group and not "sometimes".

Walker narrowed his eyes at Alex, watching him for a few moments. Alex could tell (even if Walker wasn't looking at him) that he was trying to gauge what to believe. After what felt like an eternity, Walker finally spoke.

"I believe Mr. Rider would like to spend more time in his cell, to give himself some more time to think," he told the two guards at the door, who moved towards Alex in sync and began to undo the bindings on his arms. "He may be suffering from some memory loss, what with the mistakes made. Perhaps he will need some more time to recover."

Alex was pulled roughly to his feet, the teen sending Walker a dirty look as he was forced out of the room and had the cloth bag shoved down over his head. All he could remember was the light laugh coming from Walker's direction before he was dragged away to wherever he had been kept before. The bag was barely ripped off his head before he was shoved back into the room, stumbling and falling onto his forearms to stop his face from hitting the ground. He only managed to shoot a short glare at each of the men before the door was slammed shut.

"Woah, you okay?" Andrew asked, a frown on his face as he moved towards the other teen. Alex managed to push himself up onto his hands and knees, taking a few deep breaths, before he answered Andrew.

"We need to get out of here."

Andrew rolled his eyes at that. "Look, I already kind of knew that, but—"

"What's your connection to this place?" Alex demanded, suddenly looking up at Andrew. That immediately silenced the other boy. "Look, I need to know—"

"Why do you need to know?" Andrew was suddenly angry, though his pale face suggested he was more terrified than anything.

"This guy, Walker—"

"Speaking of that guy—" Andrew cut in, though Alex continued to speak as if he hadn't heard him.

"—knows you have a connection with this place—"

"—how come a guy like that even knows—"

"—and will use it against you to get information—"

"—who you are?"

"—that cannot be revealed at all costs."

The two boys stared at each other in silence to see who would crack first.

"Well?" Andrew asked. Alex raised a single eyebrow at him.

"You haven't answered my question," Alex stated, moving to sit on his knees. Andrew narrowed his eyes at him.

"Well, you haven't answered mine," the darker-haired teen retorted.

"I asked first."

"I refuse to answer until you've answered mine."

"This is impo—"

"Somehow, I doubt it," Andrew snapped. "Whatever this is, it has something to do with the fact that you two somehow know each other, and you should keep it that way. Don't bring me into this."

"The fact that this place was chosen and you reacted so strongly to it means you've already been dragged in," Alex argued bluntly. "That is why I need to know your connection to this place. Walker knows it, and he's going to use it against you."

"And how would he know?"

"He can get people to access everything for him. Blackmail. Bribes. He can't put himself in public too much because there's a warrant for his arrest, but he can clearly get things done."

Andrew still looked too angry to believe Alex. "There's something between you two that you're not telling me."

"So you're not going to tell me what connects you to this building?"

"And it's got something to do with whatever you've been hiding since you got here."

"Are we  _honestly_  back to that again?" Alex was angry now, glaring harshly at Andrew, who (kudos to him, Alex had to give) didn't even flinch. "Drop it. Now."

"No! This is obviously all tied in!"

"I'm not telling you!"

"Then how can I trust you enough to talk about myself?"

"I just— _ugh_!" Alex appeared utterly frustrated. Though Andrew had a point – and a very good one, might he add – it didn't help at all. Alex wanted to help the guy. He wanted to keep him safe. Get him as far away from this business as possible. But clearly he was being dragged in feet first without his knowledge, and was assuming that Alex was the bad guy in all of this.

_He's probably right_ , a voice in Alex's head piped up, making the fair-haired male scowl. True, Andrew had no reason to trust him, and Alex hadn't exactly worked hard to give him one, but… the trust was just needed now. That was all.

"My past with Walker is… complicated," Alex finally admitted, breaking the tense silence between the two. "I can't tell you much, but that's all you need to know right now, okay?"

"That's not enough."

"Well that's all you're going to get!"

"Why?"

"Because it's not safe for you to know!" Alex blurted out the words before he even registered them coming out of his mouth, and he pursed his lips for a few moments, before speaking again in a more controlled tone. "Other people who knew – people who have known in the past – they've all been hurt because of it. I can't tell you, because it will make your life worse."

"I'm an  _orphan_ ," Andrew emphasised. "How can life get worse for me?"

"You… have no idea."

* * *

Gibbs was practically scowling as he entered the lab, surprising a focused Abby as she concentrated on whatever she had plastered on her computer screen. Her eyes were wide as she watched Gibbs approach her.

"Boss-man! You're here! I haven't even found anything yet!"

"I need a location," Gibbs stated simply, stopping Abby before she could make any complaints about how he had arrived before she had told him she was ready to pass on information. That definitely caught her attention, if the way she straightened up almost immediately was any indication.

"What're you looking for, Gibbs?" she asked, sounding a lot more serious than she had earlier. She turned back to face her computer as Gibbs oved to stand beside her, peering at the screen as she did.

"A person." He glanced at Abby. "Get the location of Lisa Harrison. Use any resources you need – it's on me. Send me a location."

Abby's brows furrowed. "The CIA have her location pretty well hidden…"

"Well, it's a good thing you're pretty good at finding stuff."

Abby pursed her lips. She never usually doubted her own ability to do things like this, but…

She visibly brightened when the Caf-Pow! appeared on the desk beside her. She grinned at Gibbs, picking up the caffeinated drink and placing the straw against her lips.

"I'll get you that location as soon as I can, boss-man!"

Gibbs nodded, pecking her on the cheek briefly, before leaving the room.

There was no way he was going to sit around and wait until they got results. There was definitely something they were missing, and the CIA were hiding it.

And Abby would find it. But Gibbs had more than one kid to care for.


	17. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! Sorry it's been so long! Work has been tough, and draining me of writing inspiration - but I have another chapter or two written as a buffer, so I might post those soon! Either way, I'm sorry for not writing as quickly as I thought, guys, but I'll try to get back into it!

The cell was practically silent as the two boys sat in opposite corners, avoiding looking at each other at all costs. Their spat, despite being short, had been enough to cause a rift between the two and stop them from being able to speak to each other – at least, stop them speaking calmly; any words that had been spoken since their argument had a biting undertone to them.

Alex knew for a fact that the remainder of their stay there, no matter how long, was going to be painful if they kept this up. How he could break the silence without earning some scathing comments, however, was going to be difficult – he didn't have to be a genius to work that out. But he had to break it, because either way, Walker was going to break  _him_ ; maybe even break them  _both_.

Maybe he had to cut straight to the point of their argument.

"Are you sure you want to know…?" Alex asked seemingly no one. The way Andrew raised his head from where it had been resting on his knees, however, suggested that the darker haired teen knew otherwise.

"What would make you think otherwise?" Andrew asked in return, sitting up a little more fully.

Alex pursed his lips, still reluctant to answer. He knew that going down this path would be irreversible for the two of them, but it was possible that they had to start down it if they were to get out of there.

Instead of answering, however, he turned back to face the wall, closing his eyes. He needed to think about it, and come back to it in the morning… or whenever he decided to wake up. The decision was proving much more difficult to make than he'd originally thought.

Hopefully he'd make it soon.

* * *

 

Gibbs looked weary as he pulled to a stop in front of the house, turning off the engine and sitting there in the silence, not climbing out of the car. Beside him sat a duffel bag – bright blue with purple stripes, just the way Jessica liked it. It was currently filled it the brim with her clothes, shoes, books and sketch pads.

The older man knew it was easy to get hung up on one kid when stressed – he'd witnessed parents do it before in cases, and even heard the occasional neighbour yapping on about their middle or youngest child whilst their eldest sat in the corner, dejected. When Andrew and Jessica officially came into his care, he wanted to promise himself that they wouldn't be treated like that, that one wouldn't be favoured over the other. But sometimes it was inevitable.

Right now, Gibbs was trying to make up for "favouring" Andrew for the past few hours. Jessica was safe, and presumably having fun, but she was also worried about her brother not being around, and hadn't directly heard from Gibbs. That was why he had turned up at her friend's house, with an overnight bag and some things to keep her distracted whilst they searched for Andrew.

His eyes roamed up and down the street, subconsciously searching for anything that could give him a clue as to where Andrew could be, before he finally snapped out of his thoughts and climbed out of the car, pulling the duffel out behind him and locking the door. It didn't take him long to make his way up to the front door, ringing the doorbell and waiting for it to be answered. It wasn't long before the door opened and he was greeted by a petite woman with a wide smile.

"Mr. Gibbs! I didn't expect you to arrive so soon."

The man gave Doris one of his rare smiles as he lifted the duffel slightly, showing that he'd packed for his foster daughter. "Thought I'd pop by with her things."

"Of course, of course! Come in!" The woman stepped aside and allowed the agent to enter the house, shutting the door behind him as he walked through to the lounge. Gibbs hadn't been to this house often – maybe once or twice to pick Jessica up when he had a case that ran on – but he trusted Doris enough to take care of Jessica and even protect her if need-be. The woman was an ex-Marine wife ('ex' because her husband had been killed in action, something that Gibbs had expressed his deepest condolences for whilst the woman had merely brushed it aside with a nervous smile) and the daughter of a cop; she knew how to handle a gun and protect the people she needed to.

Taking a seat in the lounge when urged to by the woman, Gibbs listened out as she called for Jessica up the stairs, which Gibbs took to mean as the girl was thoroughly enjoying herself.

He couldn't hold back a smile when he heard the excited gasp that he'd come to associate with Jessica, though, and let out a small chuckle as she ran to hug him – something she rarely did, but when she did it, it definitely meant a lot to both the agent and the little girl. Squeezing her gently back, he let go as she pulled away and immediately noticed the concerned look on her face.

"Have you found him yet?" she asked nervously, looking as if she wasn't sure whether she wanted to know the answer or not. Gibbs had to admit, the little girl was wise beyond her years – she understood a lot more than a usual nine-year-old would, and it tended to come out in the way she spoke to people. He only wished her childlike behaviours and innocence had lasted longer.

In response to her question, he shook his head, knowing that giving her the truth tended to do better than hiding it until he thought she could handle it. "Not yet. But we're looking. McGee and Abby are doing everything they can to find him, and Ziva is finding out everything she can about the people who took him."

The little girl hesitated, before nodding and moving to bury her face in Gibbs' chest again. The older man welcomed it, running his hand gently through her hair for a few moments before speaking.

"I brought you some clothes and things," he told her softly. At the frown on her face, he elaborated, "I want you to stay here until we've found him, just so you're safe. Don't argue with me, Jessica. I want you safe until this all passes over. You'll be safer here, with Doris. Okay?"

The little redhead stared at him, appearing to debate as to whether she was going to argue with him about this or not, before finally nodding. She wasn't going to get her way, she knew, so she might as well go out of this agreeing with what was going on.

"All of your sketchpads are in there, and a few sets of clothes." He planted a kiss on her forehead. "I promise I'll call and check up on you. But stay here, and stay safe, alright?"

If Jessica saw the concern and stress on his features, she didn't comment on it, deciding to just nod and go along with it. Her eyes moved towards the duffel bag brought for her, and she reached out to take it, opening it and beginning to rifle through the items in there. As she began to rifle through everything in there, Gibbs looked up to see Doris stood at the entrance to the lounge, a soft smile on her face as she watched the two interact. He was about to stand to ask whether there was anything she needed to speak to him about when his cell began to buzz in his pocket. Muttering a quick apology to Jessica as he stood, shifting her over onto the couch more fully, he pulled the phone out of his pocket as he headed out of the room into the hallway, giving Doris a quick smile as he passed her.

"Gibbs," he said gruffly into the device, holding it against his ear.

" _Gibbs… you are going to want to see this… in person."_

Gibbs brows furrowed deeply for a moment, before he snapped his phone shut, heading back to Jessica. "I've got to head back into the office now," he told her briefly before pecking her on the head. "I'll call you before bed, okay?"

Jessica just hummed in response and nodded, looking through her different sketching pencils and pads as she tried to think of what she wanted to draw first. She barely even noticed as Gibbs left the house, too focused on her sketch of what she remembered of her brother's face to realise that the man was gone.

* * *

 

" _So you're going to take me back to my uncle."_

_Alex was sat in a car with the redheaded man, who was headed through the streets of the city. At that point in time, there was no traffic, which should have surprised Alex – it was getting close to the afternoon of what should be a busy workday; people should be racing to get their lunch before heading back to work. At least, that was what he would have been doing._

_Perhaps all of these people were more organised and took their lunch to work with them._

_The redhead glanced over at Alex when he spoke, before focusing back on the road ahead of them. "That's the plan, yeah."_

" _Do you even know who he is?"_

" _Are you gonna tell me?"_

_Alex paused, thinking deeply about it. The right thing to do would be to tell the man who his uncle was so that he could get returned safely and continue with their holiday (hey, it wasn't his fault that Ian had left him to his own devices and he'd decided to explore), but… he still wanted to know what that man had been doing sneaking into that building. It hadn't seemed right – all of his instincts, even though he was barely a teen, told him that the man had been up to something. And he wanted to find out._

_Maybe he could use this to his advantage and get some interesting information whilst he was there._

" _Only if I get to find out what that man was doing too."_

_The man cast him an irritated look, as if he'd hoped that Alex didn't say that. Like the boy didn't remember what had happened earlier. Alex rushed to try and make the deal with him._

" _I promise I'll tell you as soon as I find out!" the boy begged, eyes wide. "I promise! I just want to see!"_

_The man huffed, appearing conflicted for a few moments, before he finally turned the car around, grabbing his cell phone from the holder beside him and flipping it open to make a quick call. "Hey, Harrison? Meet me at Safehouse 3." His eyes slid down towards Alex, who sat beside him, looking excited. "Yeah, I know. But kid convinced me." As he spoke, he seemed to speed up, the buildings passing by faster. "Meet me in five."_

_As soon as he put down the phone, he pursed his lips. "I cannot honestly believe I'm doing this." His eyes darted towards Alex briefly, before he scowled at the road ahead of him. "God help you if I get fired for this, kid."_

Alex took in a sharp, deep breath as his eyes opened, waking from his slumber. He didn't realise he'd fallen asleep, but he was leaned against the corner he was tucked up against, his head on one wall as he faced the other. Sitting up more fully, he listened out to find that Andrew had also fallen asleep, his breathing slow and steady to show that he hadn't woken up yet.

What irritated Alex most, if anything, about the "cell" they had been locked in was the fact that as they were underground, there were no windows. So he couldn't estimate what time it was – something that he was sure would drive him mad if they stayed in that building for too much longer. Was it day? Was it night? How many hours had they actually been in there?

Deciding to ignore that, Alex took a proper look around the little cell they were in and noticed something high up on the wall.

A vent.

_Makes sense if they want us to breathe_ , he thought as he shakily pushed himself to his feet. The vent itself was situated high on the wall in the corner between himself and Andrew, opposite the door, and he approached it slowly. Considering this was the basement, the ceilings weren't exactly low – he knew that to reach it, he most definitely had to be raised up, like on a box or a ladder or something. Maybe… maybe even on Andrew's shoulders, if they ever got to that level of comfort around each other (which he seriously doubted).

He was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of the lock on the door grating as it was removed, and quickly moved back to his corner of the room, just managing to get there when the door opened to reveal Walker stood there with his two guards.

He smiled brightly at Alex, unnerving the boy. "Good day, boys!" he greeted, and out of the corner of his eye Alex noticed Andrew jolting awake. The ex-CIA agent slowly began to walk towards Alex. "I see you're both up and ready for the day! My boys wanted to bring you two breakfast, but I wanted to have a bit of a chat with Alex first." He slapped his hand down onto Alex's shoulder, squeezing tightly for a moment before beginning to steer the fair-haired boy towards the door.

Alex had a blank expression on his face as he was led out of the room, not wanting to give Walker the satisfaction of knowing he was actually worried about what was happening. But as he left the room, he glanced back towards Andrew, who was watching him carefully. As their eyes met, Alex flickered his eyes towards the vent he'd spotted earlier and back at the other boy, before allowing himself to be led out of the room.

Hopefully Andrew got the hint.

* * *

 

Gibbs walked briskly from the elevator to the bullpen, barely stopping to see who was actually in the bullpen and what they were doing before announcing his presence with, "What've you got for me?"

"So I did some digging into Alex's past—" Tony started.

"With my help," Ziva interjected quickly, earning herself a glare from the other agent.

"—and I found a few interesting things about Alex's childhood in the UK." Multiple files appeared on the screen, and Tony began to summarise the information on some of them to Gibbs. "He grew up in London with his uncle after his parents passed away when he was a baby, got a housekeeper sometime during his childhood… and then his uncle passed away when he was 14." A file was highlighted on the screen, the text about Ian Rider's death showing up in bold. "Funny thing is, there's nothing to say that Alex was immediately moved into the foster care system or cared for by any other relatives, since he had some sort of distant cousin living in Glossop. But…" Another file was highlighted on the screen: Alex's school records from Brooklands. His academic attendance from Years 7 to 10 were up on screen: the total number of years he'd actually been at the school. The first two years showed full attendance, and the beginning of Year 9 showed the same. "He seemed to show near perfect attendance until the passing of his uncle. Then it seemed to be intermittent for the next year or so – he spent more time out of school than in school. And each time, just before returning to school, he seemed to either appear more withdrawn to his teachers or spend time in hospital." Tony looked over at Gibbs. "I mean, the hospitalisation thing matches up with the whole having bruises thing, boss, but we need to know why he was out of school so often in the first place and how exactly he got such serious bruising, and maybe more about these guardians he had."

"We did find out about who his housekeeper was, however," Ziva announced from where she sat. A photo of a redheaded woman appeared on the screen, smiling. "This woman was called Jack Starbright, and her last known location was Cairo, Egypt, if security footage from airports is any indication. After that, she was reported deceased. We have been through her past, but other than her moving to England to study Law and being hired by Ian Rider as a housekeeper, there is nothing suspicious. The only suspicious one appears to be Alex over that year between his uncle's and Ms Starbright's deaths."

"Did you manage to find out anything about Rider?" Gibbs asked.

"His uncle?" McGee asked. "Everything about him is either minimal or classified… much like with what we've found on Alex over that year. We can't even access his hospital files. There are claims of doctor-patient confidentiality, but there has to be something more behind what has happened to Alex."

"Managed to hack anything yet?"

McGee gave Gibbs a startled look. "Well, uh—"

"Do what you need to do."

"Are you really giving me permission to hack into Alex's details, no matter who has them classified or hidden?"

Gibbs just gave McGee the slightest of smiles before turning to head down to Abby's lab. She hadn't called, but—

Just then, his cell began to ring, and he pulled it out of his pocket, flipping it open and putting it to his ear. "Talk to me."

" _Well… it turns out finding Lisa Harrison was a whole lot easier than I initially thought. She came back on the radar about half an hour ago._ "

"Send me—"

" _Will do, boss-man. But you better get there quick before she disappears again. I don't think she appeared for us to find._ "

Gibbs gave a nod, even though he knew that Abby wouldn't see it, and flipped the phone shut, heading back through the bullpen and to the elevators that led down to the parking garage. "Get me information about his guardians and his uncle," he called back to his team. "I want information by the time I get back."

The agents simply nodded as they got back to their work.

* * *

 

Andrew didn't know how long Alex had been gone for, considering his watch had been taken from him, but he had a feeling that whilst Alex was gone, he'd been asked to do something. He couldn't quite read all of Alex's cues yet, but the way he'd looked at him was enough of a hint to actually get something done whilst Walker was off doing something with him.

Speaking of Walker…

What he'd said to him when they'd first arrived still shook him a little. Not only did he have some sort of past with Alex and wanted something from the other guy, but he knew about Andrew. And not only knew, but he was  _using_  it against him for some reason that he didn't understand. Considering how psycho this guy seemed, he wouldn't put it past him to bring it up later and use it to cause some sort of emotional torture.

Standing and taking steps backwards towards the door to get a look from where Alex had been standing, he was jarringly woken from his thoughts when he spotted exactly what Alex had seen.

And it made him smile ever so slightly.

A vent.


	18. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well! As I said in the previous chapter, I have buffer chapters available for me to post as I'm writing, but I think I'm actually getting my writing done more quickly now! I have a bit more free time and a bit more inspiration, so I'm able to get more out to you guys! As I said a few chapters back, I'm hoping to get this finished by the end of the year at the latest (since the end of the summer is now looking less and less likely), so hopefully I should be posting more over the next few weeks.
> 
> As always, comments also play a part in motivating me to write more, so if there's something that you would like to point out, or even something that you've enjoyed so far, feel free to leave that in a comment!

Gibbs was silent as he pulled up to the address that Abby had sent him, turning off the ignition and looking towards the apartment building that stood there. The building looked old, and fairly run down – the perfect place for a safehouse in the middle of a city. A bit predictable, he had to admit, but at least it got the job done. Because no one really approached apartment buildings with multiple innocent civilians in them.

Unless they were ruthless murderers.

Disregarding that thought, Gibbs climbed out of the car and locked it behind him, heading straight towards the block. Turning the handle to the front door, he was fairly surprised to find that it was open, and walked into the building.

He wasn't surprised to be met with a dark, musty corridor. The floors were a dirty green, the walls a filthy beige, and fluorescent lights stretched the entire length of the corridor to provide enough light for any entrants to see; though a single lamp in the middle of the corridor flickered relentlessly. As Gibbs made his way to the end of the corridor, where the staircase stood behind a fire door, he could hear the various residents conversing behind their doors, before he finally reached the staircase door and pushed it open, walking through and beginning to climb.

The address that Abby had given him was on the third floor, only two floors up from where he had entered, and soon enough he was exiting onto the third floor and searching for the door number that Lisa Harrison would be behind.

Eventually he reached a door that was slightly ajar, and he tensed upon realising that it wasn't closed like the other doors along the corridor. Slowly pulling his gun from its holster, he clicked off the safety before slowly nudging the door open, resisting the urge to wince at the creak it gave as it moved. Poking his head into the apartment, he glanced around to make sure it was safe before slowly entering with his gun up in front of him. His eyes scanned the room he had walked into, finding it was an empty lounge of sorts with only a couple of couches and an old coffee table. There seemed to be a small kitchenette off to one side, and two doors stood on the opposite side of the room – Gibbs assumed that they led to the bathroom and the bedroom; and in one of those rooms, the agent he was searching for was hiding.

Picking one of the two doors at random, Gibbs held his gun at the ready as he moved to stand beside the door, counting to three in his head before slowly turning the handle and pushing the door open.

The gun pointed at him told him that he'd got the right room.

"Federal agent, put the gun down," Gibbs said warningly.

"Show me your badge," a feminine voice commanded.

Gibbs did as he was told, pulling his badge out of his inner pocket and revealing it to the individual on the other side of the door. The badge slipped out of his fingers for a few moments, before the door was opened to reveal a woman most likely around Tony's age, with fair hair and blue eyes. She scrutinised his appearance for a few moments before handing the badge back to him.

"Special Agent Gibbs," she greeted slowly, clicking the safety back on her gun and tucking it into her holster before folding her arms. "I've heard a lot about you."

"It's a shame I can't say the same about you," he responded shortly.

"I suppose when you get tangled up with someone like Trent Kort, everyone hears about you." She jutted her chin up, narrowing her eyes. "How did you find me?"

Gibbs raised a single eyebrow at her. "You're not going to question the fact that I've come looking for you?"

"I was going to come to that later. But first, how you found me."

"That's not important right now."

"My cover is very important right now if we both want to leave this building alive."

Gibbs hardened his gaze. "Considering the fact that you revealed your cover to  _us_ , you shouldn't be questioning. I need information from you."

She scoffed, though paused for a few moments when she seemed to realise what Agent Gibbs was saying. "Alright, then," she conceded, moving to sit on the edge of the grungy bath. "What do you want?" Before Gibbs could open his mouth to speak, she continued, "I hope you realise that the information comes at a price?"

This was the CIA. Gibbs knew that they didn't do anything for free; he'd dealt with agents enough in the past to know that they wanted something in return for any information they gave out – in contrast to the FBI, friendship wasn't enough of a deal for them.

"There was a series of cases involving yourself and Petty Officer Peter Marks in 2008 and 2009, just before he joined the Navy—"

"Petty Offi—you mean Pete? CIA Agent Pete Marks?"

"Yeah," Gibbs nodded, noticing how her expression became stony. "What information can you give me on what you worked on together?"

The woman pursed her lips. "That's confidential CIA information."

"We have a flash drive containing information about the cases you two were involved in together."

She scoffed. "Then why are you talking to me right now?"

"Because you have more personal information with regards to the case that isn't noted down in the files."

She rolled her eyes, but her lips were pursed – she knew it was true, and Gibbs knew that she knew. Placing her gun down on the floor, she gave a sigh before beginning to explain.

"Peter and I were working a case of material trafficking when we stumbled across some information on the criminal group that were behind the conducting the trafficking. It was mostly the trafficking of stuff like diamonds, rubies… valuable minerals from African and Middle Eastern countries. We got the tip-off from one of our contacts, and heard that the materials were going to be used for some sort of machinery to attack millions. We would've found out more about the mission itself, except the trafficking suddenly stopped. Like someone had found that we were looking into it and stopped or made it more hidden. From then on, we tried to look more into this criminal organisation, and the bigger we found it got the more agents got involved – in particular, my younger brother, Dominic, who became very interested in it.

"It took a while, but after some investigation we eventually found out that the organisation was called  _SCORPIA_. This attracted the attention of Joe Byrne, and Peter and I got really deep into it… then we met this kid. Don't know who he was, or how he ended up there, but somehow he alerted us to an agent… my brother, turning against us and becoming one of Scorpia's own." Her face fell slightly. "After he was discovered, we never saw him again. And I never saw the kid again, though Peter managed to keep in contact with him once or twice. From what I heard, the kid has played a huge part in bringing down the group."

Gibbs' brows furrowed at that; a child, playing a part in the bringing down of a criminal organisation? An organisation which, from what they as a team had gathered, was too big for even one government agency to take down alone? Yet, at the back of his mind, something was prickling, which prompted him to ask the question that next came from his mouth.

"Who was the kid? The one you met that helped against  _SCORPIA_?"

There was a pause as Lisa seemed to consider answering this question, not quite sure how Gibbs would take it. But then, she realised that there was no way that Gibbs could find the child – he was almost undetectable now, ever since the fall of Scorpia. From what she had heard, he had not made contact with anyone since that time in Cairo (at least, that was what Byrne had told her when she'd asked).

" _Peter! What the hell?!" Lisa glared at the man as he stepped out of his car, a young boy no older than twelve following soon after. Fair hair and dark eyes, he looked like any other kid off the streets, but it suddenly struck Lisa that even if he was some random kid, he was supposed to be in school right then._

_Peter just held his hand up to stop any more questions. "Look, the kid said he saw something, and I just want to check it out, okay? If it's nothing, I'll take the blame."_

" _If you take the blame, you could get suspended."_

" _I'm just checking it out, okay? Chillax." Peter moved towards the building they'd parked near – a safehouse for CIA agents that very few actually knew of._

_Lisa sighed, before beginning to follow after Peter. "Okay, well, at least tell me the name of the kid!" she called out behind him._

" _You can ask him yourself!"_

_Lisa turned towards the child, who just smiled at her innocently._

"His name… was Alex Rider."

* * *

Alex tried to take a deep breath to get some air into his oxygen-starved lungs, but the stabbing pain in his chest from the most definitely broken ribs in his lower torso made it very difficult to do so. How he was supposed to answer any of Walker's questions when he could barely breathe comfortably, he had no idea, but he was pretty sure that his excuse that his broken ribs stopped him from speaking comfortably wouldn't be an excuse at all.

He had no idea how long it had been, but Walker had spent the whole time asking him about where the flash drive was. At first, Alex had got away with acting as if he had no clue what it was, considering he was British and "flash drive" wasn't a British term, but a suffocating punch to the ribs made him switch from denying he knew what a flash drive was to denying he knew about the exact flash drive Walker was on about, and then denying he knew the location of the flash drive.

That last one was true. He didn't know exactly where it was. Last he knew, it was at NCIS; it could have been moved since then.

It was just a shame that Walker didn't believe him.

Taking slow breaths as he glared up at Walker, who stood behind his two goons, Alex barely said anything as the man demanded them to "untie the brat and take him to his cell". The teen barely resisted as he was untied and pulled roughly to his feet, wincing as he was pushed along and out to the corridor. He barely had time to catch his breath before he was shoved back into the room with Andrew, and it took all of his efforts to not fall and wind himself any more than he already was.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, Alex fell on all fours, panting from both the pain and still being slightly winded. Andrew watched him hesitantly before moving towards him, kneeling down beside him.

"How bad…?" the other boy asked lowly.

"Ribs," Alex managed to choke out, bringing his left arm up to hug his torso gently. It took him a good few moments for him to recover, pushing himself up into a squat with a wince before slowly standing. "I'll live."

Andrew watched him carefully for a few moments, before nodding and standing, taking a few steps back. "Alright. Well," his eyes looked up towards the spot on the wall Alex had gestured to earlier, "I found the vent."

Alex nodded. He didn't know how long they'd been in the building now – maybe a couple of days at most – but he knew that they had to get out of there, and they had to do it soon. After all, he was pretty sure they'd notice the missing butter knife in his pocket eventually; they'd probably already noticed it was missing since their last meal before he'd fallen asleep and were waiting to see what he would do with it.

"How do we get up there, though?" Andrew asked, turning to look back over his shoulder at Alex. "It's pretty high up, and we'd have to unscrew all the bolts before we can even think about getting in there. And we don't even know where the vents lead."

"All vents eventually lead outside," Alex explained. "All we need to do is follow the air currents and they should lead us to an exit – either outside or inside the upper floor of this building."

"…You mean the main warehouse…?" Andrew asked slowly. At Alex's nod, his face paled slightly.

Alex's eyes narrowed. "Okay, look, I know we're not really getting on, and that we both just want to get out, but I need to know right now why that warehouse makes you react like that. Because if you behave that way around Walker, he'll use it against you and he'll make you suffer."

"And how do you know that?" Andrew asked, bristling slightly.

Alex gave him a deadpan expression. "I'm pretty sure I have broken ribs." He stepped closer to Andrew, poking him in the chest. "Don't underestimate Walker. He's taken only me so far, but if he thinks he can use you to get information, he will. He won't hesitate to use that against you if he thinks it can be leverage."

Andrew pursed his lips, staring at Alex for a few moments, before turning back to the vent. "How do we get up there?" he asked, changing the subject. "Unless we sit on each other's shoulders, we don't have anything to get us up there, and your ribs are screwed up right now, meaning that bending over must hurt like a bitch."

"Why would you need me to bend over?" Alex teased, keeping a straight face.

Andrew's face flushed bright red. "You say that like you want to bend over."

"Maybe I do."

"Let's stop before we go any further."

"Gotcha."

Andrew let out a snort, the blush on his face dying down., and Alex cracked a grin. Any tension that had been there had mostly died down with the joke, the two boys both beginning to focus on how to get out of that cell.

"How about running up the wall?" Alex suggested, glancing over at Andrew.

"What, like parkour?" the other boy asked, squinting slightly. "There's not much space to build up the speed to run up there."

"We have to try," Alex pointed out.

"You mean  _I_ have to try. Like hell you're going to run with those ribs."

Alex frowned at Andrew. "So what am I meant to do? Hold your arse up as you undo those screws?"

"If you could do that whilst keeping watch, that would be awesome."

Alex scoffed as Andrew grinned at him, before watching as the other boy moved so that he could get a running start and head up the wall. Moving to the side, Alex leaned against the wall as he watched Andrew back up to the wall opposite the vent, giving the other male a thumbs-up as he prepared to run.

After a few deep breaths, Andrew sprinted the short distance to the other wall and pushed himself up off the ground, his other foot hitting the wall.

Only to slip, his head hitting the concrete just before he could use his hand to brace himself. Alex winced at the sound made by Andrew's head hitting the wall, before slowly pushing himself off the wall and heading towards where Andrew leaded against the wall below the vent, groaning.

"You alright?"

"I hit my head on the freaking wall," Andrew groaned.

"So I'm guessing that's a no?"

"Shut up."

* * *

Gibbs didn't know what to say as he returned to the bullpen, still not quite sure how to take the news he'd recently been given.

Alex, a mere teenager, had been involved in the taking down of a criminal organisation.

Taking down an organisation that large was no easy feat. Heck, it would've required multiple special agents and undercover missions to do anything like that. But Alex had, apparently, played a huge part in bringing down  _SCORPIA_.

His fists clenched as he approached his agents, all of whom looked up at him with slightly fearful looks on their faces.

"What've you got?" he demanded, looking between each of them icily.

Hopefully McGee had more information on this.


	19. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So, here's another chapter for you! I would be posting later this week, but I'm actually going camping until the weekend, so I won't be able to post anything out there (I've gotta conserve phone battery if I'm not near a plug the whole time, haha...) and have thus decided to post something for you guys now!  
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I look forward to writing and posting for you guys when I get back! Read on!

"I've managed to find as much information as I can on Alex Rider, and… well, I required a lot of help from Ziva, and Abby." McGee glanced over at the female agent, appearing a little nervous, before continuing. "It also required a lot, and I mean a  _lot_ , of hacking on my end, boss. A lot of Alex's information was blocked off by what we later found to be MI6 – we couldn't even access his medical records. We had limited time to dig in, since we knew breaking through their firewall would alert them to an external hacker, but we managed to find information on two Riders – John and Ian Rider, both of whom we're assuming are related to Alex. Or, at least, were." Photos of the two men appeared on the screen for the other agents to look at. "Both agents are currently deceased, and have been for quite a few years. Ian Rider died two years ago, and John Rider died fifteen years ago. I thought it was because of those two that they had records on Alex hidden in their database, but I managed to sneak out a couple of files from deep in before I was kicked out." A couple of files appeared on the screen – most of them appeared to have redacted information on them, but there were enough words visible to get the gist of what the file was about. "It seems from these that Alex might have been involved in some business with MI6.  _Classified_  business."

That set Gibbs on edge, and a thought began to form in his mind that at any other time, he would've thought it ridiculous. But it was seeming more and more plausible, now.

"I guess that explains how he could've been involved in the bringing down of  _SCORPIA_ ," Gibbs mentioned casually, causing all three agents' heads to swivel towards him quickly.

" _What_?" Tony demanded, as McGee began to search through the files he had obtained quickly for any mention of what Gibbs had said. Ziva was the only one who seemed relatively calm, looking thoughtfully at the screen as McGee continued to type and click away at his computer.

"I met with Lisa Harrison," Gibbs informed his team, his arms folded as he stared at the screen, ignoring the looks he was receiving from the other agents. "She and Marks stumbled across  _SCORPIA_ , but when they looked further into it they happened to attract the attentions of other agents and ended up forming a large research group. In the end, a couple of agents from their group were found to be turning away from the CIA and to  _SCORPIA_. Apparently, it was a young Alex who initially led them to the defecting agents… and in later years, Alex was involved in the bringing down of the criminal agency itself."

McGee pursed his lips as his eyes scanned through the documents in front of him, trying to find anything that could confirm what Gibbs was saying, but nothing was coming out at him. "I can't seem to find anything to confirm that…"

"He is British…" Ziva suddenly said after a few moments of silence settled over the group, her eyes wide. When all she received was confused looks from the males, she began to move her hands wildly in an effort to explain herself. " _SCORPIA_  was brought down earlier this year by a British agent, no? See if there are any files from earlier this year. Perhaps there is some evidence there."

The silence that followed her suggestion was tense as McGee searched, bringing the files up on the screen for everyone to look at and flipping through each one. Suddenly, Ziva exclaimed, "Stop!" causing McGee to stop on a document that, though mostly censored, briefly described the prevention of an assassination attempt earlier that year. An assassination attempt on a U.S. Official in Cairo.

"There!" Ziva pointed at the screen, turning to look towards Gibbs. "Alex was involved in this mission, which I am assuming from the fact that this file is amongst his own, and this was around the time of the bringing down of  _SCORPIA_. I heard a lot about this through my sources – this was the catalyst for the breakdown of  _SCORPIA_ , and it prompted the arrests of many of its agents."

"Wait, this is a  _mission_?" McGee spluttered, frowning over at Ziva. "This doesn't look anything like a briefing or file I've ever seen before; and I've looked through a lot of CIA mission briefings. It looks more like a piece of homework…"

"Like a highly structured essay, with black marks covering a good four-fifths of the damn thing," Tony added.

Ziva blinked over at the two agents. "Well, I am not sure exactly how the British compose their mission briefings, but that looks very similar to the structure of Mossad's." Her eyes met Gibbs', and she almost immediately knew that a similar thought passed through both their minds.

"Maybe he was a witness?" McGee suggested, sounding almost hopeful. "I mean, he's a kid…"

"In five different situations?" Tony demanded, raising a single eyebrow at McGee. "Come on, you're not McStupid. There's no such thing as a coincidence."

"We can't jump to conclusions yet," Gibbs interrupted before Tony and McGee could start bickering, and everyone's eyes turned to him. "We need to confirm this, considering the documents are highly censored. All we can conclude, is that more than one of these cases involved  _SCORPIA_ , meaning that Alex definitely has a history with them."

"Which makes him more of a target," Ziva concluded, getting a nod from Gibbs.

"That means this could be just as much of a vengeance kidnapping as for what happened with Marks," McGee added slowly, the hopeful tone in his voice fading away almost immediately.

"And if we're going with what Harrison said, then Alex has been involved with them for a while, and they have a  _lot_  of vengeance to get on him," Tony muttered, his lips pursed in determination. "So we need to get to him as soon as we can."

Without even being prompted, the agents began to move back to their desks, more intent on finding Alex and Andrew now that they knew more about what was going on.

Because now they knew that there was one of two possible outcomes to this case: they would either save Alex from the clutches of the ex-SCORPIA agents, or he'd be gone before they had the chance. And of course, whatever happened to Alex… there was a good chance it would happen to Andrew as well.

* * *

Andrew stared up at the wall from where he was sat, his head leaning right back so that he could focus on the vent sat high up on the wall. Despite the teasing he'd received from Alex after he'd hit his head, Andrew had managed to eventually reach the top of the wall, the only problem being the fact that the screws were securing the grate firmly onto the ventilation shaft, and there was nothing available for them to remove it. Andrew had only managed to stay up there a few seconds longer before his fingers started going sore from the sharp slanted metal of the grate pressing into his fingers. He'd dropped to the ground none-too-gracefully before the two boys began to think of ways to actually get the screws off the grate.

Their answer came in the form of a belt buckle that Andrew had forgotten he was wearing.

"So we've got a way out," Andrew had said quietly, looking up at the vent before back at Alex, "and we've got at least one tool. Is that it?"

"Ideally we should have a weapon," Alex had responded, absentmindedly rubbing at his now bruised arms and wincing slightly at the dull pain it caused. "But it looks as if anything we decide to take as a weapon should be the last thing we take. Smash plates on our way out, maybe grab that stupid butter knife they keep on leaving with us."

"It's like they're testing us with that," Andrew grumbled sourly.

"It's more like they're testing  _me_."

"Why would they be testing  _you_?"

"It's… a long story."

Andrew raised a single eyebrow at him. "Well… we have been in here a  _long_  time…" he pointed out slowly.

Alex pursed his lips, clearly reluctant in telling Andrew anything. At least, he was reluctant at that moment in time. He had no idea how he would start, or how well Andrew would even take it – and it could ruin things, like whatever budding friendship they had going on. They were so close to getting out… they couldn't let anything else ruin this now.

Of course, as all villains do, Walker had other ideas.

It felt like mere moments after their conversation (ended when Alex refused to answer to Andrew's prompt and spill the past year and a half of his life to the other boy) that the door slammed open, Walker entering the room in his usual casual fashion with his guards on either side of him. Alex could tell something was different about the situation by the mere fact that he hadn't been grabbed and dragged out as soon as the room had been entered.

His worries were confirmed when instead of grabbing him, the guards lunged for Andrew instead, grabbing his arms tightly and roughly pulling him up off the floor and to his feet.

The brunette's eyes widened, and almost immediately he began to struggle and pull away from the men. "H-hey! Let go of me!"

Alex moved to stand almost immediately, wincing at the pain caused by the jarring of his chest, and attempted to glare at Walker with gritted teeth. "Let him go, Walker. This is between you and me."

"Is that so?" Walker asked with a smirk, his eyes moving slowly between the two boys. "Well, I guess if that's the case, you won't mind me using another method to get to you? Clearly all of my other methods don't seem to work, since you seem to be as stupid as ever when I ask you such simple questions, and pain doesn't quite work on you as well as I anticipated." He merely smirked as Andrew continued to be dragged out of the door. "After all, it's not as if we brought him for no reason."

The fair-haired boy moved to take a threatening step towards Walker, but one of the two guards moved to stand in his way.

"Don't waste your energy on him," Walker said, not even watching Alex as Andrew was dragged forcefully from the room, kicking and screaming. "We have what we came here for. He can't follow us."

Alex began to try and stumble after Walker, but the man only laughed as he walked out of the door, leaving Alex to trip over his own feet and fall forward with a cry as it ground shut.

* * *

Andrew was still struggling against the grips of Walker's guards as he was forced down into the chair, his arms secured behind the back of the seat with what felt like a zip-tie and his feet secured to the legs of the chair with rope. As soon as he was secured (and they checked by tugging on the bonds harshly enough to leave bruises), the cloth bag was removed from his head, and he blinked heavily for a few moments, his agitated movements slowing.

Walker slowly grinned as Andrew began to realise exactly what situation he was in.

"Ah, so the little Parkson boy knows where he is…" the man taunted as he slowly approached the chair, leaning down when he was standing a mere couple of centimetres away from Andrew's legs. Grinning, he leaned his face close in to Andrew's – close enough for the teen to feel his breath on his face. "Hopefully it means that he knows what he has to do now."

Andrew pursed his lips, trying his best to glare at the man, though it seemed difficult to do when he was right in his face and was going cross-eyed by just trying to focus.

Walker just smirked. "Oh, trying to defy me, are you?" He gave a low chuckle, glancing over his shoulder at his two guards. "I actually thought he was smarter than this. This poor little boy doesn't appear to know what he has gotten himself into, does he?"

"As far as I recall, you were the one who brought me here," Andrew responded snarkily. "I didn't get myself into anything – you dragged me into it without giving me the chance to even say no."

"Ah, so he speaks?" Walker stood up straight, slowly beginning to pace around the chair Andrew was sat on. "Very good, very good. Then you will have no issue answering my questions, correct?"

Andrew pursed his lips shut again, though this time, instead of amusing Walker, the action irritated him.

"We will start off with a simple enough question, one that you could not possibly mess up: Where did you meet Alex Rider?" The stony expression Walker received in response would've made him chuckle if he hadn't been so irked by the boy's actions at that moment. Pausing at the lack of an answer, he sent a sharp look in the boy's direction, before sighing and continuing to pace, this time heading towards Andrew.

The sharp backhand he received to the face nearly brought tears to Andrew's eyes.

"When I ask a question, I expect it to be answered," Walker explained calmly, sending a dark glare at Andrew. "You clearly don't come from the same world as Alex, so I'm assuming you at least have the manners to open your mouth and provide me with a response. I'm also assuming you have a far lower pain tolerance level, though that is always open to experimentation." He grinned at Andrew as he cracked his knuckles, before turning to begin his pacing again. "Now, I am going to repeat the question, and I expect an answer, alright? Hopefully that brief conversation has knocked some sense into you."

Andrew continued to stare at Walker, the bright red mark formed by the back of Walker's hand throbbing on his cheek.

"Where did you meet Alex Rider?"

"School." Andrew's face whipped to the side as it was met with another backhand, this time to the opposite cheek.

"I do not approve of liars," Walker stated simply.

"You said you wanted an answer to the question," Andrew responded, turning his head slowly to face Walker. "You didn't specify that it had to be the truth."

Another slap.

"I thought you would have made the smart move and assumed that the truth was requested. Clearly you are not as smart as you appear. Though…" Walker walked around to the back of Andrew's chair, before grabbing a fistful of his hair and tugging harshly, making Andrew cry out. "You must be incredibly stupid to allow your hair to grow this long. It must be longer than your pretty little girlfriend's."

Andrew grit his teeth as his head was held back, his green eyes focusing on the concrete ceiling above them.

"Now, I am going to ask you one last time, and I do hope that you will respond with the truth this time: Where did you meet Alex Rider?"

Andrew's lips were pursed, internally still fighting over how to answer the question, though it was spotting Walker's raised hand out of the corner of his eye that prompted him to answer as he was told.

"Dad introduced him to me," he answered quickly, nearly breathing a sigh of relief when he saw the hand lower.

"Good, good." Walker smiled slightly at the answer. "Correct answer. Now, what did your father tell you about how he met him?"

"I have no clue." That, Andrew knew was the truth. His dad hadn't exactly told him anything about  _how_  he met Alex – anything he'd heard about the case, he'd heard from either eavesdropping or because Tony got bored and told him what was going on. Walker couldn't hit him for this, could he?

He was answered when he felt a harsh punch to the gut, making him wheeze. When he'd recovered a little, he looked up at Walker with wide eyes.

"I told the truth!" he protested, though he sounded more like he was about to cry.

"I didn't like it," Walker responded simply as he turned to start pacing again. Andrew's silence in response to that statement made Walker grin. "You learn fast, don't you? Perhaps I can get what I need out of you."

* * *

Alex was curled up in the far corner of the room, attempting to get at least a little sleep through the pain he was in. Breathing softly, he only just managed to register the sound of footsteps approaching the door before the lock was turned loudly and the large metal slab grated against the floor. He startled awake, wincing when his chest moved sharply.

He was met with the sound of a body slapping against the floor, and he carefully shifted himself so that he could see what was going on.

Once the door had shut again, Alex realised that it was Andrew lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, and his eyes widened. "Andrew…"

The form on the ground shifted a bit, before Andrew took a deep breath and lifted his head to look up at Alex. Alex gave a smile of relief, before realising the look on Andrew's face. A look that he dreaded seeing on anyone's face.

A look of betrayal.

"Who… who are you…  _really_?"


	20. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! I hope you've all been well! As you can see, I'm back from my camping trip, as well as another week away, and I'm now back at uni - not studying just yet, but I'm sorting all my stuff. So that means that things may be slower or faster from now on, depending on how much free time I have, but come the end of the month things should be slowing down a good bit. I'd hoped to get this fic done by the end of the summer, but I was a whole lot busier than I anticipated, so I didn't manage to get it all done. I'm still writing, though, so stick with me! Hopefully it should all be done by the end of the year.

_Once the door had shut again, Alex realised that it was Andrew lying in a crumpled heap on the floor, and his eyes widened. "Andrew…"_

_The form on the ground shifted a bit, before Andrew took a deep breath and lifted his head to look up at Alex. Alex gave a smile of relief, before realising the look on Andrew's face. A look that he dreaded seeing on anyone's face._

_A look of betrayal._

" _Who… who are you…_ _really_ _?"_

Alex could only stare at Andrew in something akin to shock, not expecting something like that to come from Andrew at all – at least, not after all this time, and not with that look on his face. And not in this particular situation.

Which meant that something happened when he was taken.

"What did Walker say to you?" Alex demanded, moving closer to Andrew.

The other boy hurriedly slid away, and he noticed the flash of fear crossing Alex's face. A flash of fear that only confirmed what had been said to him.

"So it's true…"

"What's true?" Alex demanded, his voice raising in both volume and pitch. "What did Walker tell you?!"

Andrew just continued to move away, his eyes widening as Alex raised his voice at him. Alex didn't know whether he was more angry or saddened at this, and he moved back to where he had been lying against the wall, curling up protectively. Hearing Andrew shift he spared a glance at the other boy, only to see his back turned as he shuffled slowly to a corner at the complete opposite end of the room. He pursed his lips to stop himself from bursting into tears, instead turning so that he was curled up more comfortably and not facing Andrew.

If Walker's intention was to break him emotionally, then there was no way he could let him win.

* * *

"What've you got?"

Every member of the team was focused on their research, and all of them looked up sharply at the familiar call from Gibbs, though none of them looked particularly hopeful.

"Nothing's come up on the BOLO yet," McGee informed Gibbs. "There are way too many vehicles that fit the van's description from what I found, and I can't track the path it took – not all of the streets have cameras, and it seems as if a very long and twisted route was taken."

"I have not been able to contact anyone either, Gibbs," Ziva responded, pursing her lips and glaring down at her phone. "It is either that, or they are not telling me anything about Alex. People do not seem to know much about him, or they do not want to tell me about him for fear of someone or some _thing_  else."

"So two hours,  _two hours_ , and you have nothing?!" Gibbs looked around the bullpen sharply. "Where's DiNozzo?!" he demanded.

That was the first time the two junior agents realised that Tony was actually missing.

"I… have not seen him," Ziva admitted, sounding confused.

"He said he was going to visit Jessica," McGee responded slowly. "I don't know why…"

"It sounds as if you could do with some more help." The aforementioned agent suddenly appeared around the corner of the bullpen, a grin on his face – a grin that quickly faded at the sight of Gibbs. "Hey, boss. I… uh…"

"Where the hell were you?!" Gibbs demanded, fuming at his senior field agent. "I leave the office for five minutes, and you disappear of the damned face of the—" Gibbs stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the woman walking into the bullpen behind him. His eyebrows rose when he recognised who it was. "Harrison."

"I heard you needed some help," Lisa responded, folding her arms. "Apparently you sent this moron after me to get some help." She jutted her thumb in Tony's direction to gesture over to him.

Tony had an indignant expression on his face. "Hey!"

Gibbs smirked ever so slightly, though his eyebrow remained raised. "I didn't send anyone after you – that moron moved on his own terms."

Tony was staring at Gibbs in shock now. "Hey!"

"He tells me you're looking into Alex Rider and his links with  _SCORPIA_ , and that flash drive." She looked between all four of the agents, before a small smirk grew on her face and she placed her hands on her hips. "You've done well so far obtaining information as NCIS agents, but how about you get someone who actually knew Agent Marks and understand how CIA agents work things?" She sauntered past DiNozzo and Gibbs towards McGee.

Ziva's eyebrows rose, and she looked from the woman to Gibbs. "Gibbs, you did not tell us that she was so…" She trailed off, not exactly sure of what word to put there.

"Feisty?" Tony suggested, with a slight grin as he leaned on the bullpen wall beside her desk.

"Arrogant," Ziva corrected, glaring at him before pushing his arm so that he wasn't leaning there anymore. She merely smirked as he yelped and hurried to straighten up before he fell.

"Come on, we needed a solution!" he argued as he recovered, frowning at Ziva.

"And you think she is it?"

"Well you guys were getting nowhere—"

"Would you two shut up?" Gibbs snapped, glaring at his two agents. "David, get back to work. And DiNozzo, do something  _useful_  this time!"

* * *

_Alex was nearly silent as he followed the two agents towards the safehouse, which meant that Lisa ended up spending more time looking over her shoulder to make the boy was still there than forward at the actual safehouse. More than once she ended up walking into Peter, resulting in the male agent elbowing her and hissing at her to actually focus._

" _If you don't kick your ass into gear right now, you'll blow our cover – the kid is doing better than you are!"_

_She pursed her lips at him. "Yeah, and that's the problem! The damn kid!"_

" _He's fine!"_

" _Well I'm not fine with him!"_

" _I can act as if I'm not here, if you want?" Alex suggested quietly, causing the two agents to look towards him sharply._

_Peter scoffed. "You're doing well enough at that already!" He sighed and turned to Lisa. "Lisa, look – we came here to look at something the kid has tipped us off about. Couldn't you at least try to focus on that? Because if he's tipping us off about something that's actually happening, and you give us up, I will make sure that_ _you_ _are the one who gets suspended. Got it?"_

_She huffed, glaring off to the side for a few moments, before nodding. "Fine. Let's get on with it, then."_

_Alex hesitated as the two agents moved on ahead, waiting for them to put some distance between himself and them, before beginning to follow after._

_The safehouse was a simple building – it was what appeared to be a three-bedroom home, semi-detached, with a small front yard. The area was a residential area – a perfect place for CIA agents to hide out and pretend they were a family, since barely anyone would think to search there. Alex was pretty sure the bike sat out on the front yard was placed there to make the house seem normal, but he didn't see anything normal about it. It wasn't even muddy – it didn't look used at all. The house almost looked_ _ too _ _perfect._

_The only imperfect thing was…_

" _Why is that window wide open?" Lisa asked hesitantly, looking up at Peter as the three of them ducked behind a car near to the safehouse._

_Peter's brows were furrowed in concern as he stared at the open window, trying to think of reasons why it would be opened so wide. As far as he knew, as long as you were a CIA agent and got permission, you had keys to the house and could access it whenever you needed. He himself had used the safehouse a good few times without issue._

_Which meant…_

" _Someone's using the safehouse without permission." He quickly began to creep towards the house, keeping low and sticking close to buildings and vehicles. It didn't take long before the three reached the house, ducking by one of the windows. All three of them looked towards the open window on the opposite side of the front door._

" _We need to get in there and see what's going on," Lisa murmured, her eyes glued to the open window._

_Peter nodded in agreement. "We're both too big to get in quietly and unnoticed." He glanced at Alex. "You said you wanted to help out, right, kid?"_

_Alex watched them with wide eyes. "Uh, well… I…"_

" _Good. We'll need you to get in and scout for us." He reached into his pocket and pulled out what seemed to be a small listening device – a bluetooth earphone. "Put this in your ear. I'll turn it on for you. We'll get you to tell us what you see, and we'll guide you through if you have any issues."_

" _Or just in general," Lisa added, looking a little doubtful at the situation but going along with it anyway. "Look, don't act as if you're our only hope. We'll come in there and get you if anything happens, or if you do anything stupid. Got it?"_

_Alex looked between the two with wide eyes, before giving a nod. "Got it."_

_Lisa glanced over at Peter. "If his uncle finds out about what we're doing, we could get sued. Heck, we could get fired. Maybe even arrested for using a minor."_

" _Or we could end up cracking something wide open, because people don't break into a safehouse for no reason. Especially if they don't know it's a safehouse. Plus, the window isn't really broken – just open. So there's definitely something suspicious going on here." A determined expression appeared on Peter's face as he turned his face towards Alex. "And we are going to find out what that is."_

Alex gasped as he suddenly awoke, disoriented for a moment or two. Once he realised where he was, he realised that the dream he'd just had – the dream he'd woken up from – was more than just a dream.

It was a memory.

"There's another piece to the puzzle," Alex muttered as he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

Alex breathed heavily, trying to ignore the sharp pain through his chest every time he inhaled. Breathing was the only way he could ignore the pain in his leg at that moment in time; it didn't take a genius to know that the sharp pain he felt shooting up and down his shin was because of a break – a fracture – in his leg. After all, he'd heard the crack, and Walker had aimed straight at his leg with that damned kick anyway. There was no way that it was some kind of accident, or to get information; this was torture. Pure torture. Walker was doing it for fun, and there was nothing that Alex could say to get him to stop.

Not even if he told him the truth – not that he was ever going to tell Walker the truth about that flash drive.

Walker grinned as he rubbed his knuckles, looking over Alex's battered form. "I wonder how much more your body can take, Alex…? You may have the resolve, but every body must reach its limit at some point."

Alex just glared up at Walker in defiance, still controlling his breathing so that the chances of feeling sharp pains in his chest were reduced.

Walker just chuckled at the expression on Alex's face, before leaning over and ruffling his hair – though it seemed more patronising than affectionate. "Little Alex Rider… kicked puppies aren't very threatening, you know." Before Alex could even make a snarky comment, Walker turned to his lackeys. "Get him back to the cell. I'm done with him… for now."

Alex pursed his lips – he felt as if he was being thrown away like he was some sort of broken or used toy. He barely had the strength to struggle against the guards as his bonds were loosened and he was pulled roughly up from his seat. Clenching his teeth tightly, he closed his eyes tightly to try and block out the pain from his leg as he was forced to limp alongside the guards, back to his cell.

Hearing the door open, he barely had any time to brace himself before he was thrown mercilessly to the ground, aggravating the pain in his leg and causing him to cry out. Tears sprung from his eyes and he clenched his fists as the door slowly shut, silence enveloping the room until:

"Alex…?"

Alex could only breath heavily in response, focusing on trying to control the pain.

"Alex!" Andrew crawled over quickly, genuinely concerned for the other boy. As soon as he reached him, he leaned down to look Alex in the face. "Alex, are you okay?"

There was a grunt as Alex shifted into what was probably a more comfortable position, and a whimper, before Alex managed to grind out, "My… leg…"

Andrew sat up more fully, glancing down at Alex's legs. "Your leg? What happened to it? Wait, which leg…?"

Alex lifted his head to look at Andrew, glaring at him slightly. "Walker broke my leg," he managed to grunt out as he tried to push himself up into a seated position. He whimpered as he felt a sharp pain in his chest and paused, his arms shaking from the strain.

Andrew pursed his lips, watching Alex for a few moments, before slowly moving to help him into the more comfortable sitting-up position. Alex gritted his teeth and tried to restrain from letting out any sounds of pain as he was moved, giving a relieved sigh when he was finally sat up.

"Thanks," the fair-haired boy breathed, offering a weak smile to Andrew. When it wasn't returned, his expression transformed into a scowl. "What?"

Andrew pursed his lips, scowling right back at Alex.

Alex scoffed, rolling his eyes at the other boy. "What, so you help me out one time and then you act like I'm some sort of bug on your windscreen? What the hell?"

"I don't talk to people I don't trust."

Alex sighed, shaking his head. "Oh, so we're back to that again…"

"Oh please, don't act as if you didn't expect it. You fully deserve it."

"For what?"

"For lying about who you are!" Andrew had pushed himself to his feet and walked towards the opposite side of the room, away from Alex, but had now turned to face him, an angered expression on his face.

"I didn't even tell you who I was!"

"You lied by omission!" Andrew glared up at the vent. "Who's to say you even want to get out of here? For all I know, you could be leading me to my death up there." He scoffed. "Your parents probably aren't even dead."

"Shut the  _hell_  up!" Alex was fuming now, his face slowly turning redder. "You don't know a thing about me—"

"Isn't that the problem here?"

"—or what I've been through! You got to know your parents – mine  _are dead_! And you  _still_  turned out to be the most inconsiderate little shit I've ever had the misfortune of meeting!"

Andrew faltered at that, his eyes wide. "You—"

"Oh,  _shut up_. Stop making everything revolve around you! That is literally all I've heard the entire time I've been stuck with you!" Alex clenched his fists. "Meanwhile, I've been stuck on witness protection, hiding from people who probably want to kill me because they didn't finish the job in the first place! Christ almighty, you've been an absolute  _dick_!"

The room was enveloped in a tense silence as the two stared at each other; one with an expression of anger, and the other with an expression of shock. The silence remained for a good while, the two boys staring at each other, before Andrew decided to break the silence.

"Walker said you worked for the government."

Alex schooled his expression into a blank one as Andrew continued.

"He said that you'd volunteered yourself for government work, and willingly stole information from other government agencies to be used by the British. You… you hurt so many innocents, worked for the CIA, almost killed the U.S. Foreign Secretary! You're a murderer and a liar and you should be letting the CIA's information go to these guys because the CIA are crooked as it is!"

The anger faded from Alex's form as Andrew spoke, and eventually the boy deflated against the wall, staring at the ground between them both. Hundred of thoughts flew through Alex's mind, but one kept coming up repeatedly. One that had been on his mind from the moment he'd met Andrew, but had been coming up more frequently the longer he knew the guy and the more he spent time with him.

If he didn't tell him now, he doubted he would ever tell him, which would probably mean that they would never get out of there – because he knew for a fact that they needed to be able to trust each other to be able to get out of there.

Alex pursed his lips for a moment, his brows furrowing momentarily, before he opened his mouth and spoke:

"That… is the biggest fucking lie anyone has ever told about me. And people have told so many." He looked up at Andrew, making sure their eyes met. "I never volunteered for government work. I never  _wanted_  to work for the government. I'd never even considered it." He let out a laugh. "I wanted to be a  _footballer_. But you know what? Life is shit, and it's because certain people are so damn determined to control every single part of everyone else's."

Andrew frowned slightly at that, looking very confused. "Okay… what do you mean by that?" he asked slowly, moving to sit down and folding his arms.

Alex took as deep a breath as he dared, before finally answering.

"I was blackmailed… into being a spy."


	21. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Hope you're all well! I'm back at uni now, but it's actually pretty chill for a little while, so in my chill time (before Freshers' week) I've been writing a fair bit, which is why I've got the next chapter available for you guys within a week! Hopefully I can keep this up for another week, since lectures aren't starting for another little while, but one can only hope.

" _I never volunteered for government work. I never wanted to work for the government. I'd never even considered it." He let out a laugh. "I wanted to be a footballer. But you know what? Life is shit, and it's because certain people are so damn determined to control every single part of everyone else's."_

_Andrew frowned slightly at that, looking very confused. "Okay… what do you mean by that?" he asked slowly, moving to sit down and folding his arms._

_Alex took as deep a breath as he dared, before finally answering._

" _I was blackmailed… into being a spy."_

Andrew was silent for a few moments as he took in what Alex had just said, thinking it over for a little while, before he made a sound that seemed to be halfway between a scoff and a laugh.

Alex raised a single eyebrow at him. "What?"

Andrew smirked. "It's just that… well… it doesn't sound that believable…"

"And me volunteering to work for a government agency does?" Alex retorted, folding his arms loosely across his chest. He sighed, leaning back against the wall. "I was blackmailed into government work, at the age of fourteen, when my uncle passed away. They, uh… well, they threatened to deport my guardian, Jack, if I didn't do as they said."

Andrew was about to speak up, to say that it still didn't sound all that realistic – that it sounded too crazy to be true – when he noticed the look on Alex's face. It was a haunted look, like that of someone who had experienced too much for someone their age.

It was the same look he remembered seeing every time he looked in the mirror for the first few months after the ending of his parents' murder case. That look alone told him that there wasn't a single chance that the story was fake.

"It started after I was told that my uncle died in a car accident. Obviously it wasn't a car accident, because the story didn't make sense to me – they said my uncle wasn't wearing his seatbelt, when he  _always_  wore his seatbelt and tended to yell at me and refuse to drive off if I didn't, even if we were in a rush. So it made me really suspicious, and I decided to, well, go and investigate myself, which I guess was… my big mistake?" Alex gave a small grimace. "I found out that he'd been murdered – there were bullet holes in the side of his car when I found it in the pound. I guess that's what made them think of blackmailing me in the first place – I knew too much. So I was blackmailed into my first mission." He paused for a moment, thinking on how to continue.

Andrew watched him carefully, waiting for him to speak.

"Have you ever heard of Herod Sayle?"

Andrew was taken aback by the question, and had to think for a few moments before he responded. "Uh, I think so? I think we leaned a little about him in social studies… didn't he do something with computers all over England, or something like that?"

Alex gave a nod. "Yeah, that's right. He donated computers to various schools… but it turned out that he'd put viruses in all of the computers to kill the kids as some sort of revenge for a traumatised childhood. Honestly, he was a really mad criminal to start off against." Any humour that had appeared on Alex's face at the mention of "mad criminal" faded as he continued to speak. "After discovering I was an 'asset', one of the UK's government agencies decided to finish off what I later found out was my uncle's mission." He looked a little haunted as he continued, as if he was recalling memories he'd rather not remember. "There was… a lot to go through. I mean, when I say, 'mad criminal', I  _mean_  it – because the stuff I was subjected to was  _mad_. But, I guess I succeeded, because the only way to stop the guy was by breaking through the roof."

"Breaking through the—wait, that was  _you_?!" Andrew's eyes had bugged wide now, and he was leaning forward to listen more intently. "You came through the  _roof_?! How?!"

"Parachute."

"You parachuted through a roof?"

"I parachuted towards the roof. I just happened to go through it because I was going really fast and the roof was glass." At the shocked look on Andrew's face, Alex gave the tiniest of shrugs. "It was either that or break my legs on impact."

"I'm surprised you didn't do that anyway! I mean, the speed at which you had to be approaching the roof so that you could smash through it…" Andrew shook his head slowly. "That's ridiculous!"

Alex shrugged a little. "It got the job done. Herod Sayle was arrested for what he did… though he was eventually… well… killed…"

Andrew's eyes bugged open.

"I didn't do it!" Alex hurried to explain. "I just… witnessed it. I wasn't allowed to use weapons, because I was a kid. MI6 wouldn't allow it."

"Woah, woah, woah," Andrew held his hands up to stop Alex from talking. "MI6 blackmailed you into this? British Military Intelligence, Sector 6?"

Alex gave the weakest of smiles as Andrew allowed that to sink in. He knew it would be difficult to take in – it had been difficult enough for Sabina to take in (Tom had been a special case, and he believed anything and everything Alex told him, as long as there was a possibility that it could be true in some sort of alternate universe) and she'd known him for longer than Andrew had – but honestly? Andrew had shown himself to be smart enough to and capable enough of understanding many things. Alex knew that the guy could do whatever he wanted if he put his mind to it.

"I… I can't believe…" Andrew murmured quietly, before shaking his head and pursing his lips. "You were blackmailed into doing government work. That's absolutely ridiculous."

"Yeah…"

"I can't believe they forced a minor into that."

Alex's eyes widened, before he shrugged. "I… yeah…" He wasn't so sure how to respond to someone who was suddenly so supportive of him and against the people who used him – particularly someone as serious as Andrew – but it was… refreshing.

Andrew sent Alex a slight smile, before something occurred to him. "So… was that it? That was the time MI6 used you?" Andrew's brows furrowed in confusion. "But… that doesn't even sound like it involved the CIA…"

"That's because it didn't." Alex took a deep breath. "I was… used a good few more times. The CIA used me once or twice. The first time they used me, they sent me to Skeleton Key, which was an island practically owned by that guy… Alexei Sarov?"

"The Russian general?" At Alex's widened eyes, Andrew shrugged. "Okay, so I listened a lot in current affairs classes – I had no choice. My parents used to test me on that sort of stuff. Plus, I'd look like an idiot if I was a military kid who didn't know about military stuff going on around the world…"

Alex actually cracked a smile at that. "Your parents used to test you on current affairs?"

"Hey, if I failed, I'd get to play no video games for a week!"

"What?"

"I know, right?"

"I meant, 'What?' as in, that's it?"

Andrew scowled at Alex, and the fair-haired boy laughed. Actually laughed. Not too hard, or his chest would start hurting something awful, but he genuinely laughed, making Andrew laugh in response.

* * *

Lisa folded her arms as she watched McGee typing away at his computer, continuing to hack through the CIA's files for more information on Alex Rider and anything they had on  _SCORPIA_. Lisa stood there directing him on where to search for the data, from what she could remember, her eyebrows rising at the speed at which McGee was moving through the firewalls and such.

"You move fast," she complimented, "for an NCIS agent."

McGee raised a single eyebrow as he paused for a moment, before continuing with his typing. "I'll just take that as a compliment," he announced as he began to find more data. Just as he was passing through another firewall to collect some more information, his computer froze up, a strange blaring noise emerging from it. His eyes widened in alarm at the condition of his computer, not expecting it at all, and he began to try and type in commands in an effort to recover it.

Ziva looked over from her desk, concern on her features. "What is going on?" she asked, looking between the NCIS and CIA Agents respectively.

Lisa pursed her lips as her eyes focused on the screen, the cogs spinning in her mind as she attempted to work out what had happened. As soon as the idea clicked in her mind, she darted to the keyboard, typing away as quickly as she could. "You've been found," she informed McGee simply, ignoring his indignant cry and wide eyes as she shoved him aside to attempt to rectify the problem that had arisen.

McGee scowled. "Was that a particularly sensitive firewall I reached?" he asked, watching as she attempted to repel the various attacks his computer was now being subjected to.

"No, you've just been in there a while without pulling out. Happens to the best of us." She continued typing away as she spoke, "The further in you get, the shorter the amount of time you can spend in there. I figured that out the hard way back in the day." Her brows were furrowed deeply as she worked.

McGee's eyes were fixed on the screen as she continued to work. "Are they wiping my data?" he asked incredulously.

"They're  _trying_  to," Harrison corrected. "Now, shut up and let me concentrate. The cyber division is ridiculously predictable, and I want to kick their asses a little before pulling out with everything you've obtained."

McGee raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

That was when Harrison grinned ever so slightly. "I used to do this for fun. It's been a while since I've hacked for anything important or useful." She glanced over at McGee with a wink. "Thanks."

McGee just stared at her before shaking his head slowly. He honestly had no idea what was going on, and he was pretty sure he didn't quite want to right then.

* * *

Andrew was quiet as all of the information Alex had given him finally sunk in. He could tell that Alex hadn't told him everything (and if it were him, he wouldn't give everything either) but what he'd said was more than enough to give Andrew a clearer picture of the situation they were in right then.

Alex had been through a  _ton_ , to put it simply.

Hired unwillingly by British Military Intelligence, only to be loaned out to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency a couple of times, and even the Australian Secret Intelligence Service had made him work with them at one point (Alex hadn't explained that mission, but the way in which he'd glossed over the details was enough to tell Andrew that it was a terribly sore spot that the other teen probably wouldn't get over any time soon, if at all), Alex sounded as if he'd been to hell and back. And, somehow, he'd survived. He had the emotional, mental, and physical scars to prove everything he'd been through.

And the worst one they'd sent him on?

The last one, in Cairo, Egypt. Andrew could clearly remember that one, and not just because it had happened earlier in the summer. No, this had almost been a huge scandal, involving multiple intelligence agencies, and it had almost involved the death of a U.S. official. An important U.S. official. And the death of that official would have resulted in breaking ties with one of their biggest allies, the U.K. As it was, it seemed that it was only because Alex had ended up being involved in the saving of the U.S. Secretary of State (who had made a really  _stupid_  speech, in his opinion, but he supposed it was people like her that made him realise why he could never go into politics without really making someone mad) and the apprehension of the people behind the plans to kill her. A complex enough mission as it was, considering it was largely formed to set him up as a murderer under the instruction of MI6 before killing him, but to watch someone you love, someone who cared for you like family, die before your very eyes… Alex had had a haunted expression on his face as he mentioned that part briefly, seemingly not wanting to dwell on it much, and the look in his eyes reminded Andrew a little of the one he used to see in the mirror every day; and sometimes he still saw it, when his night hadn't been great, or he saw something that reminded him of that fateful night. He may not have watched his parents die, but he sure remembered hearing the screams and gunshots that resulted from it – screams and gunshots that haunted his and his little sister's nightmares.

A small voice in the back of his mind reminded him of how he'd mentioned something about his scars at one point and assumed he had been in a gang of some sort, and he felt a twinge of regret. Granted, he couldn't have known, but he was slowly realising that he was quick to judge – too quick, sometimes – and that it more often than not led to him hurting others and making assumptions about them that simply weren't true.

Of course, now that he knew more or less the truth of Alex's past, he wanted to act on it.

"So these guys… they're definitely part of that terrorist group—"

"Criminal agency," Alex corrected quickly, "because they do more than just terrorism."

"—that you came into contact with in the past? And you think they're out to kill you?"

"Once they've got what they need? Yes."

Andrew's lips were pursed as what felt like a million thoughts passed through his mind. Really, though, it was only his mind reminding him of the urgency of the situation they were actually in, and how important it was that they got out of this alive. He briefly met Alex's eyes, before his own drifted up to the vent that sat at the top of the wall, grate bolted firmly to the wall.

How long until they decided to go for it, risk it all, and try to escape?

It seemed as if Alex had the same idea running through his mind, because the fair-haired boy pushed himself to his feet, a determined expression on his face as he steadied himself against the wall.

"Tonight," he said simply, and Andrew's eyes moved from the vent to Alex's eyes again. An understanding passed between the two, and Andrew nodded.

It was now or suffer.

* * *

Watching her closely, McGee's face showed his surprise when she finally finished, leaning away from the keyboard and leaving it open for McGee to use. "Done," she announced. "You're out with your files, and no traces left behind."

The NCIS Agent narrowed his eyes at her, almost tempted to ask her exactly how she'd managed to do all that so efficiently, but instead decided to just take what he was given and go with it. They had a case to solve, and two boys to save.

Choosing one of the files they'd obtained, McGee was about to open it when Harrison spoke.

"When we're done, I want that flash drive," she told McGee quietly, making sure that no one else could hear her. "The information on that doesn't belong in your hands. We need it back."

"Who's to say that we don't need it more?" McGee countered with a raised eyebrow, looking over his shoulder at the woman.

She scowled at him. "That is classified CIA information. You are going to give it to me because the information belongs to  _my_  agency, and not yours. Understood?"

McGee narrowed his eyes at her, but before he could respond, he double-clicked on the file he had decided to open and his attention was drawn to what appeared on the screen. His jaw dropped as a large document opened, revealing what seemed to be a long list of names.

"What…" he started, unable to complete his question before Lisa was answering it for him.

"It's a more complete list of those known within the CIA to be affiliated with or working for SCORPIA," Lisa murmured, her eyes wide as she scanned through the names. "This is more exhaustive than it was when I last saw it…"

McGee paused for a moment as he thought. "You mean to tell me… that SCORPIA… have infiltrated the CIA?" he asked quietly, looking up at her with wide eyes.

"No," she responded quietly. "SCORPIA have been integrated into the CIA for years… and it's only just coming to light."


	22. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! As you can see from the fact that I've uploaded yet another chapter within a week of posting the previous one, I've been writing a lot! I guess my desperation to get as much writing done as possible before lectures start, combined with the sudden inspiration to write and the ideas flowing through my mind, means that I'm writing a lot more than I anticipated. Which, I guess, is good for you guys, because you don't have to wait as long for following chapters! Hopefully I can keep this up for another week!  
> Enjoy the chapter!

Tony's eyes were focused intently on the computer screen in front of him as the various clips played over and over, pretty much every one being the videos from security cameras in and around the area from which Andrew had been taken. Despite the fact that McGee hadn't managed to find much, Abby was adamant that there was something on the tapes worth using in the case. Thus, as McGee was busy trying to get enough information from the CIA, and Ziva was busy trying to get more information from her contacts, the only person she had left to call was Tony.

Or rather, the only computer-literate person left to call was Tony. Not that he was a whole lot better than Gibbs, but at least he understood how a computer functioned without violence.

Which was the reason why said agent was currently in Abby's lab, looking through all of the video data McGee had managed to obtain before moving on to hacking the CIA.

Pursing his lips, Tony let out a huff through his nose as he continued to try and track the van that McGee had pointed out before through the various streets shown by the traffic cams. But as he searched, he felt as if he was getting the same result.

"They're heading out of town, but like McGee said, I can't find anything much further out…"

Abby scowled over from where she was still trying to obtain as much information as she could from the flash drive – she was having as much luck as Tony was at that moment, added to the fact that much of the information was either censored or coded. "Find  _something_! There has to be  _something_! We can't give up on Alex and the Gibblet, whether he's suspicious or not!"

"I didn't say I was giving up!" Tony snapped.

"It sure sounded like it!"

He grit his teeth as he glared at her. "Look, you focus on getting your information, and I'll focus on getting mine, alright? I'm not a computer techie who knows how to do everything like you and McGee! Give me a break!" He almost slammed on the desk in anger, before looking over and noticing the look on Abby's face.

The look of desperation.

Tony deflated when he noticed her expression, turning to look at his computer for a moment before focusing on Abby again. "You know we'll find them, right?" he told her gently, offering her a small smile.

Her lower lip began to tremble. "But… but what if by then, it's too late? What if by then, they've got what they want from Alex, and have no use for either of them anymore?" She turned to her computer nervously. "What if by the time we eventually find them, they're dead?"

"Don't speak like that," Tony snapped, his expression hard. "Andrew has survived something like this before, and I'm betting Alex has as well. They're both stronger and smarter than we give them credit for. We  _are_  going to find them in time, they  _are_  going to be alive, and we  _will_  solve this case. We don't have the space for any more cold cases."

"Plus, they're pretty depressing," Abby muttered quietly. Tony had to crack a tiny smile at that.

"You got that right."

The two were quiet for a few moments, before the clicking of Abby's fingers on her keyboard reminded Tony of exactly why he was down there. Sighing, he focused on the screen in front of him again, staring almost blankly at the screen in front of him.

Until an idea suddenly came to mind.

"Abby…" he started, waiting for her to respond with a hum before continuing. "If you were going to kidnap a guy you knew had been involved in the bringing down of your criminal agency, but was under witness protection, where would you go?"

Abby's brows furrowed for a few moments in confusion, before her eyes lit up in understanding. "I'd pick someplace secluded, somewhere no one would be able to find me… but if it was someone who had brought my agency down already, I'd have to pick somewhere with ties. Kind of like a sick reminder." She frowned again. "But as far as records go, Alex has never been to D.C. or Virginia – this is his first time in the tri-state area."

"Sure, Alex hasn't," Tony agreed, before levelling Abby with a look, "but who was brought up here and has practically lived here all his life?"

Abby's eyes widened. "Andrew…"

"And where's the one secluded place that holds memories for him?"

"The abandoned industrial park." Abby scooted her seat over to Tony, peering over his shoulder at the computer screen with the cameras. "At least three of those cameras follow a route leading in the direction of that park."

"Think you can get me more footage along that route?"

Abby grinned and nodded. "I'm on it!"

Tony raised a single eyebrow. "What, no Caf!Pow fee?"

"For you, my friend, I'll do this free of charge."

* * *

 

Alex cracked a single eye open, keeping his breath slow and even as he observed his surroundings, before deciding that the coast was clear and sitting up.

The cell was currently dimly-lit – whether it was because the bulb was finally dying or because it was Walker's sick was of imitating evening, Alex wasn't too sure, but he also knew that he didn't really care. As long as he could see Andrew and his own two feet, he was fine.

And as long as he could see the slight glint of the butter knife ticked up Andrew's sleeve, he was comforted.

The fair-haired boy lay there for a few moments, waiting to see if anyone would enter the room again (the butter knife was missing from their dinner tray – someone  _had_  to notice that eventually) before slowly pushing himself into an upright sitting position. It didn't take long before Andrew followed his lead, keeping the butter knife tucked into his sleeve as he slowly pushed himself to his feet.

"The coast is clear?" Andrew asked Alex, keeping his voice low. When the ex-spy nodded, the military child moved to stand in his running position, getting ready to run and reach for the vent.

Alex listened out for footsteps one last time, hoping that no one would be heading their way, before nodding at Andrew. "Go."

In a few swift steps, Andrew made his way across the length of the cell and up the wall, gripping to the vent grate. A bare moment later, Alex was beneath him, supporting him by his thighs as he worked to remove the screws from the grate with his belt buckle. It was slow work, but eventually the screws came loose, and Andrew tucked them into his pocket to prevent them from clanking to the ground and making too much noise.

Alex almost gave a relieved sigh when he heard the creaking sound of the grate coming loose and being removed from the vent, almost missing the grate being passed to him until Andrew hissed his name out. Looking up, he barely had time to catch it before Andrew was dropping the metal item, and Alex was forced to let go to make the catch as Andrew pulled himself up into the vent.

"Oi!" Alex hissed, glaring up at Andrew. The other boy didn't even spare a response as he tried to manoeuvre himself into the space, his feet scrabbling against the wall. Alex sighed, carefully letting go of Andrew as he tried to drop the grate to the ground carefully, before shifting back to supporting Andrew. "Hurry up!"

"I would if you helped!" Andrew hissed back, slowly managing to pull himself up. He didn't expect to suddenly find himself being shoved into the vent head-first, which was why he hit his head as soon as he entered, making him wince. He kicked down at Alex frustratedly, feeling triumphant when he made contact with what he hoped was Alex's hand and made the other boy hiss in pain.

The pinch that he received in return was not expected.

Grinding his teeth together (and deciding to get Alex back for that later), Andrew pulled himself further into the vent space, until only his legs were sticking out. It wasn't long before he felt a weight hanging from his legs, and he used that as his cue to start pulling himself forward with his arms, wriggling his hips as much as he could to shuffle his way forward. When he felt the edge of the vent digging into his knees, the pressure was suddenly released, and Andrew continued to pull himself forward until his whole body was in, hearing movement behind him.

"Alex?" he whispered back, hoping that the other male was actually climbing into the vent, and hadn't actually landed in a crumpled heap on the concrete floor.

"I'm coming," Alex whispered back, "but you need to keep moving. There isn't much space here."

Andrew shuffled forwards a bit more, his shoulders occasionally bumping against the walls of the vent, until he could hear a scrabbling and a shuffling behind him similar to his own – the only difference being that the owner's breathing sounded fairy laborious. Andrew paused for a moment.

"Alex, are you okay back there?"

There seemed to be a couple of deep breaths, a moment of silence, and then:

"Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

 

It turned out, crawling along the length of a vent was not fun at all.

First of all, it was dusty. Andrew was very sure that he was lucky that he had no allergies, other than a mild hayfever, because anyone with allergies would be having a fit right then and there with all of the dust that was flying around. Not to mention the cobwebs that Andrew was sure were all over his face and in his hair – he even swore he felt a spider crawl on him at one point, making him stop in his tracks as he tried to swat it away. That had only earned him a snort from Alex once he'd explained what he was doing.

Another problem was the darkness. A vent, of course, had no light bulbs, no windows, nothing. So it was pretty much pitch black in there, unless they passed a room. Which was not very often. Andrew wasn't the type of guy to be afraid of the dark, but in a situation where they were trying to escape from someone who could easily kill them, Andrew felt as if he had a perfectly valid reason to be afraid of the situation they were in. The darkness meant that Andrew also couldn't see where the junctions were unless he felt around; something he learnt only after the first few times of hitting his head at a junction. That had resulted in a snigger from Alex which Andrew had shut up with a swift kick backwards – not easy to do in such an enclosed space, but considering the barely-restrained yelp that the other boy had given, Andrew concluded that his small revenge had been a success.

The third thing had to be where they were going, which Andrew felt was the biggest problem of all. Neither of the boys had a clue on which direction to head in – they hadn't seen where they were going as they'd descended the stairs in the first place, and it wasn't as if the vent followed the exact same path as the corridors. Alex had suggested to head in the direction of the air flow, which was a valid idea considering they could still feel things and the building was old enough to lack functioning fans in its ventilation system, but it was still pretty hard to pinpoint the direction of the air flow… if there was any at all. That added to the fact that there were points where they had to climb up a shaft to move into the next area, and twist around tight corners, made it fairly difficult to navigate where exactly in the building they were at that moment.

In fact, those three reasons together were enough reason to make Andrew want to give up, until he twisted around a corner and spotted a small light up ahead.

A blue-ish grey light.

Which also happened to be the source of what felt like a small breeze.

The teen stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening, and caused Alex to bump into his feet.

"Andrew? What is it?" Alex whispered, pushing a little at the other boy's feet to make space to move. Whilst the two boys were the same age, Alex was that little bit bigger than Andrew, the extra height making it more difficult for him to manoeuvre through the vents as easily.

"Alex… I think I found the exit."

Tony's eyes darted across the screen as he tried to search for the same van he'd been trying to track for the past few hours. Abby had managed to obtain the footage for him, like the miraculous forensics expert she was, but now it was up to him to find the exact van – the only vehicle out on the roads without a plate. It would be easier if he could see the plate of every vehicle on the roads.

Abby raised an eyebrow as she looked over at him, watching him for a few moments before speaking. "Harder than you anticipated?"

"It's like the van slowed down – I'm looking within the timeframe we had before and—got it!" He pointed at one of the squares, pausing all of the footage that was playing and mentally noting the time the van appeared on said camera. He quickly noted down the location on a map, before moving on to the next camera, intending to do the same.

Abby watched him as he moved on, seemingly invigorated by his earlier find. It was nice to see that at least one member of the team was more motivated in finding Andrew and Alex.

But really, she wondered whether this motivation would give them enough time to find the boys and get them out of whatever situation they were in.

* * *

 

Andrew knew that he should have expected a grate at the other end.

Granted, it wasn't something that came to mind when you were trying to escape from a fairly abandoned building through a ventilation shaft, but Andrew felt as if it was something they should have taken into account when they removed the grate from their end.

And it seemed as if Alex realised the same thing.

"Well this is bloody  _stupid_ ," the other boy hissed from behind Andrew, and the darker-haired teen could feel Alex glaring at the only thing coming between them and their escape.

"Maybe if you glare at it hard enough, you can melt it?" Andrew suggested, though even he knew that it probably wasn't the best time for jokes.

"You forget that I could probably break your foot over here."

"And I could break your face with said foot, so shut up." Andrew slid forwards a little, pressing closer to the grate and putting his hand against it to see if there was any way of opening the grate from the inside.

He didn't expect the grate to shift underneath his hand, and his eyes widened.

"Alex, I think it's rusted."

"What good will that do?"

"I mean the bolts. They're rusted."

Alex paused at that, before speaking again. "Rusted down to the point of being easily moveable?" he asked slowly.

Andrew nodded, then realised Alex probably couldn't see his nod and answered verbally. "Yeah. I should at least be able to push the grate out to the point of being able to pull out the screws from in here." He pushed against the grate again, wincing a little at the sound it made as it scraped against the metal of the ventilation shaft. Pushing again, Andrew gritted his teeth at the sound made, realising that it was pretty loud – in particular when it was reverberating against the metal walls of the shaft and echoing down below. That was probably going to be an issue.

Giving one last shove, the grate gave way and fell to the ground, dust and specks of rust rising in the small cloud that formed. Squinting and coughing a little, Andrew waited for the dust cloud to clear and his eyes to adjust to the sudden increase in light before his mind finally registered what had happened.

He sent a grin back over his shoulder in Alex's direction, the grin widening when he realised he could actually see Alex smile in return.

"We're free."

"Not yet – we're still in the bloody vent!"

* * *

 

Walker's brows furrowed at the sounds that had been echoing through the vents for the past hour or so. From what he could tell, the building was old anyway, so strange noises weren't out of the ordinary. It was just… these noises weren't anything he'd heard before.

Perhaps they had an infestation again.

"Lyle!" he called out, waiting for the guard to arrive before speaking. "There's something happening in the vents. Fumigate them."

The man, Lyle, frowned. "Fumigate them?"

"I think we have vermin."

"We, uh… don't have anything to fumigate them with."

Walker's eyes narrowed, causing the man to flinch. Honestly, he found his workers so easy to terrify sometimes. "Well, if you can't find anything, then you can go and  _buy_  something." Walker stood from his seat, brushing down his suit with his hands. "I want those vents cleared before I get to playing with my  _toys_  again."

Lyle gulped. The manner in which Walker had called those boys his "toys" was slightly terrifying, if only because the man had a dangerous glint in his eye as he'd said the word and had looked almost… hungry. Still, he was in no place to disobey his boss, and he simply nodded before turning to head back out of the door – most likely to drag one of the others into getting the fumigation equipment with him. Though, he somehow doubted anyone would be willing to help him out and put themselves in the line of fire like that when Walker was so hell-bent on breaking those boys and getting what he needed.

He had just managed to open the door when one of the other guards – this one being one of the youngest of the hired group – stumbled into the room, panting with wide eyes. When Walker spotted him, he raised a single eyebrow, waiting for the boy to at least steady his breathing and straighten up.

He didn't expect the panicked exclamation that came out of the young man's mouth.

"The boys… they're gone!"

Time seemed to freeze in the room as the information was absorbed by its occupants – information that would never have been expected.

Walker forced a laugh as he watched the young man. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Th-th-they…" The young guard gulped, still trying to catch his breath, as he explained. "The vent grate's removed, and they're not in the room! They escaped!"

Walker was silent for a few moments, before his eyes narrowed in anger. What he had been hearing suddenly made sense. They didn't have an infestation; they had two escaped prisoners crawling through the vents and trying to find a way out.

"Find them!" he growled, glaring at his two lackeys. "Find them and bring them back to me! I'm not finished with them yet!"


	23. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! I hope you're all good! Happy October! As you can see, I'm still keeping up my speedy writing schedule - I'm not fully into lectures yet, so I'm getting as much out for you guys as I can whilst this fairly chill period lasts. Obviously this is only likely to last another week or so, and then I'll be back to my sporadic posting (if I'm not done writing this by then), but I want to give you guys as much as I can whilst the inspiration has been flowing! I can't be leaving you guys with so little to read for too long.  
> Anyway, guys, read on!

Alex and Andrew's backs practically hugged the building as they tried to keep quiet, hiding as much as they could from anyone patrolling the premises.

After crawling out of the ventilation shaft and trying to put the grate back on as quietly as possible (something that, Alex realised with regret, they hadn't done when they'd left the room), the two boys had set about trying to navigate their way around to find a way to escape the place. Yes, Andrew had been on the site before, but he'd helpfully informed Alex that he'd only ever been  _inside_  the building, and didn't really recognise much of the outside for… reasons.

When Alex asked what reasons, Andrew had only responded with a grunt.

"Does it have anything to do with Walker mentioning something about you knowing this place?" he'd asked, only to get yet another grunt in response. He had to admit, for the loudmouth he was, Andrew also happened to be very good at staying silent.

It was infuriating.

Daring to take a peek around the corner, Andrew's eyes darted around for a few moments, searching for any sign of the men who could take them back to Walker and make sure that they'd never leave again. They'd come so far in their escape now to risk being caught – any capture would feel like a defeat.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Andrew turned and nodded to Alex, before the two slowly slid around the corner and continued to move quietly – Andrew crouched low as he moved, and Alex limping and in visible pain. They headed along the side of the large building, past a set of what seemed to be large doors for movement into trucks and lorries, and towards the other side of the building. Reaching the corner, the two pressed themselves to the wall, daring to sneak a peek around.

Andrew blanched slightly at what he saw.

Two or three men, all dressed in the attire of Walker's guards, were stood there, seemingly chatting about something whilst they smoked. The three men looked young and inexperienced, but when Andrew mentioned this to Alex and ex-spy frowned.

"Don't let that fool you. You can't judge a book by its cover."

Andrew's brows furrowed, but he nodded – he got the feeling that Alex was hinting more to himself than anything, but decided not to comment on it. The frown on his face deepened when he realised Alex was leaning heavily on the wall, his weight mostly on one leg and his arm around his ribs.

"Are you sure you can make it out, Alex…?" Andrew asked hesitantly. He didn't mean it the way it came out, but from the pained look the fair-haired boy gave him he could tell that Alex understood exactly what he'd meant.

"I have to," Alex responded through gritted teeth. "I have no choice."

"Broken bones hurt like a real bitch, huh?"

"You could say that."

The two boys grinned slightly at each other, before focusing on the task at hand.

"So, what should we do?" Andrew asked, his lips pursed as he tried to think. Alex's eyes focused on the ground as he tried to come up with an idea on distracting the guards – one that didn't involve explosions or require Smithers' infamous gadgets. Glancing upwards slightly, his eyes focused on Andrew's pocket, and his eyes widened as an idea came to mind.

"How good is your pitching arm?"

* * *

Simon sighed as he took a long, slow drag from his cigarette, letting out a puff of smoke through his nose as he breathed out with a smile. "That's a good one," he told the other two with a grin, who rolled their eyes at him.

"He acts as if he's been going through smoking withdrawal symptoms, eh, Ryan?"

Ryan took a drag from his own cigarette before replying. "You were the exact same yesterday, Lamar."

Lamar snorted. "I was not."

"You so were."

"Look, just because I know what makes me feel good doesn't mean you guys can judge," Simon responded, almost haughtily, making the two males roll their eyes at him again. "Oi! Stop that!"

The group of three began to bicker – or rather, Simon and Lamar bickered as Ryan watched on calmly – and neither of them noticed the teen slowly moving out from around the corner until something small and hard hit the back of Simon's head. The man scowled and turned.

"Hey!" All three men's eyes widened when they spotted the teen, who raced back behind the corner as soon as he was caught. The three guards ran after the boy, thinking he was alone – and completely forgetting that there had been two boys held captive by Walker.

Of course, by the time they remembered this, one had been knocked out by a frisbee'd vent grate, and the other two had been whipped harshly with the buckled end of a belt, catching them both in the head and knocking them both out cold.

Andrew pursed his lips as he put his belt back on, glancing over at Alex, who held the butter knife in his hand at that moment. "I know I gave you that knife to defend yourself, since you're currently the disadvantaged one… but couldn't you have at least  _tried_  to use it?"

Alex stared at him incredulously. "You wanted me to  _stab_  someone?"

"Non-critically, maybe?"

"That's  _sick_ , Andrew."

"They  _kidnapped us_ , Alex."

Alex shook his head as he limped past Andrew, heading around the corner to the now clear side of the building and leaving the other male to follow him. Andrew could only sigh as he followed after Alex, knowing that he'd probably overstepped a line, but he felt as if he had a point. Those guys probably didn't think they were that dangerous. They had to prove that they could fight back, right?

Reaching the end of that side of the building, the boys stuck close to the wall, Andrew allowing Alex to take the lead this time (considering he had the only weapon left, since Alex didn't think it was the greatest idea to lug the grate along with them). Alex peered around the corner, his eyes widening when he realised that there was a plate-less van sitting against that side of the building. And there was a door.

They'd reached the front of the building.

Which meant…

Alex's eyes began to dart around, looking instead to the path that would be ahead of them if they began to head away from the front of the building, towards the fence that surrounded the property. His breath caught when he realised what that meant.

"Andrew…"

"What? What is it?"

Alex grinned over his shoulder at Andrew, an excited and hopeful glint in his eyes.

"I can see the gate."

* * *

Abby's lips were pursed as she continued to go through the files on the flash drive, trying to pick out as much information as she could. Honestly, the fact that they were redacted CIA files didn't help much at all, considering the Petty Officer was probably the only person who'd known exactly what all the files said. That, and he'd probably know why only  _some_  of them were case files, whilst others were usual encrypted files with a bunch of names in them. Searching up the names didn't bring up anything in the usual criminal databases; some of them seemed to be regular civilians, whereas others were CIA agents, and none of them appeared to have any sort of connection to each other.

The files made no sense.

"This is ridiculous," Abby hissed as her eyes scanned over everything displayed on her screen, looking for some sort of link between them all. "There's nothing connecting them all. Is this some sort of code for something…?"

"You think the Petty Officer would use names as a code?" Tony asked from where he was still going through the camera feeds, trying to trace the travel of the van through the streets. He paused the feeds to look over at Abby's screen before shaking his head. "Can't be. The names are too random to stand for a code, and no name is the exact same."

"That's what I was  _thinking_ …" Abby muttered, scowling, "but I'm running low on ideas. What could these names even mean?"

"They're the names and covers of CIA agents."

Abby looked over towards the door to see McGee and Harrison stood there – McGee had an excited smile on his face as he dashed into the room and towards Abby, who looked very confused. Harrison followed after him, moving more slowly and a deep frown on her face.

"I'm sorry, what?" Abby demanded, looking between McGee and Harrison before deciding to focus on McGee. "What are you guys on about?"

"We managed to get into the CIA database," McGee explained, "and those names are the exact same as the ones involved in a case a few years back – one that Petty Officer Marks was involved in."

"One of the cases that is likely on that flash drive," Harrison added as she folded her arms. "Which is why I need it when you're done with this case."

Abby scowled at the woman. "You can't take evidence from a case. That's interfering with our investigation."

"Not if the investigation is complete."

"You're not touching a single piece of my evidence."

"At least this explains things," McGee muttered, visibly jumping when he heard another voice.

"What things, McGee?" Gibbs asked as he walked into the lab, pausing with raised eyebrows when he realised just how many people were in the lab. "You guys having a party in here?"

"Only if you brought the beer, boss," Tony quipped, which earned him a swift headslap. "Sorry, wrong time, boss."

Ignoring Tony's whining as he rubbed the back of his head, McGee decided to explain. "Marks had managed to obtain a whole list of SCORPIA's operatives within the CIA, both past and present, in his last case as an active agent. Something must have happened to cause him to leave, but in his departure he took copies of the information from case files in case everything was wiped. This wasn't known, or they didn't think of it as important, until the recent downfall of SCORPIA."

"Which means they still intend to use the individuals for something," Harrison finished, her eyes wide. When all of the NCIS agents turned to stare at her, she pursed her lips. "And that is why I need the flash drive at the end of this case. I'm the only one who can take these agents down from the inside." At the doubtful looks she received, she rolled her eyes. "I could literally hack the information from you. You might as well give it to me so that I don't have to embarrass your pitiful security system."

"Either way," McGee continued, ignoring the CIA agent, "Marks was killed to either obtain or get rid of those names; so whoever has the boys either wants the names on this list, or wants to get rid of every name on this list."

"Who knew about this list?" Gibbs asked Harrison, who looked shocked for a moment that Gibbs had actually spoken to her before actually responding.

"There was a team charged to this case. I can access the case files for you and get back to you on that one." At the raised eyebrow she received, she could only shrug. "It's not as if this stuff is ingrained in my memory."

"From that, we might be able to work out who went after the data and get a reason as to why," McGee said, glancing over at Gibbs for confirmation. When he received a nod from the older agent, he gave the barest of smiles.

"You two, get to work," Gibbs said to McGee and Harrison as he left the lab. Abby stared after him with wide eyes as he walked out.

"Gibbs!"

The agent swiftly turned and placed a Caf!Pow on the desk beside Abby, kissing her cheek. "You're doing a great job, keep going."

The forensics expert just grinned as Gibbs left the room, looking over at the others smugly before going back to attempting to access the files on the flash drive – after all, if there was something in those files that now pertained to their new theory, she wanted to be the one to find it first.

* * *

Looking around nervously, Andrew was practically glued to Alex as the two carefully made their way towards the gate that led to their freedom. It was at the other end of the wide expanse that made up the parking yard for the now derelict industrial building, meaning that there was pretty much no shelter fort he boys to hide behind – if they got caught, they were done for.

It was just their luck that from back near the building, they could see that the gate was wide open.

Someone had made a rookie mistake.

"All we need to do is to make it through that gate, and we'll be free," Andrew muttered, reassuring both himself and the other boy limping along beside him. "Just a little bit further, and then we'll be free."

"In the middle of nowhere," Alex muttered, just loud enough that Andrew could hear and shoot him a glare.

"Don't bring your pessimism into this."

"It's called realism."

"It's freaking pessimism, now shut up so we can focus on getting out."

The two continued to move slowly towards the exit, with Alex leading the way and Andrew keeping an eye out for anyone who could spot them and take them back. The two of them were halfway across the open expanse when Andrew froze, his eyes wide. Alex stopped as he did, turning back to see what was going on.

"What? What is it?" the ex-spy asked, though before Andrew could even form an answer Alex could see exactly what the problem was.

Multiple guards stood outside the building, guns holstered but more than ready to run the boys down if need be. All of them were focused on the two currently making their way to the exit.

"I guess we should've hidden those three we knocked out, huh?" Alex muttered, a sheepish smile on his face.

Andrew glared at him. "Oh no, we don't have the time," he mocked, quoting Alex word-for-word.

The fair-haired male glared at him. "Look, you prick—"

"Before you decide to start insulting me and calling me every sort of name under the sun, I'd like to point out that there are a bunch of Walker's guards right there waiting to take us back, and so we should probably start running."

Alex pursed his lips, looking between Andrew and the guards momentarily, before turning and beginning to run towards the exit, dragging Andrew along beside him. "Come on!"

Andrew stumbled a little as he turned, but ran alongside Alex, eventually overtaking him – it took a few moments for Andrew to realise, but Alex was in a worse shape than he was, with a broken leg and many more bruises than Andrew himself had, not to mention the malnourishment they had received for however long they'd been kept in that underground cell. If they wanted to outrun the men chasing them…

Andrew grabbed Alex's arm, tugging him along behind him and ignoring the yelp of pain Alex let out as he was suddenly being dragged along. "Come on! We can't slow down – they're on our tails!" Their feet continued to pound against the ground as they ran towards the exit, both boys desperate for an escape from the place they could easily call hell. Panting heavily, Andrew could almost taste the freedom as they neared the exit.

That was when it all started to go wrong.

It was Alex's crying out that alerted Andrew to the fact that his grip had slipped from the other boy's arm, and the fair-haired teen had tripped over his own two feet, landing heavily on the ground and rolling a couple of times before coming to a stop. Andrew skidded to a stop and turned, heading straight for Alex despite seeing the guards approaching them.

"Come on, Alex," the darker-haired teen encouraged as he attempted to pull Alex to his feet. "Come on, get up! We need to go!"

Alex grunted as he tried to push himself to his feet, but whimpered as his arms shook from the strain. "I can't…"

"Come on, Alex!" Andrew was desperate – the guards were approaching quickly. "Come on, we need to go!"

"I-I…" Alex looked over his shoulder, before down at his arm, noticing the small metal utensil still hidden there. "You go."

"What?"

"Go – get help. I'll cover for you."

"What? Alex!"

"Just go!"

Andrew wanted to hesitate for longer, to convince Alex that they both needed to escape and that they needed to escape together, but one look in Alex's eyes told him that it was no use. The other boy's mind was made up. And he had no time.

Reluctantly letting go of Alex's arm, Andrew pushed himself to his feet and raced off, resisting the urge to look back over his shoulder as the guards finally reached Alex and grabbed him roughly.

Alex cried out as his ribs were aggravated roughly, the teen being pulled to his feet with tight grips on his arms. It was just as they were switching the positions of their hands that Alex saw the opening, and he quickly twisted, sliding the butter knife from his sleeve before stabbing it into the nearest available limb – which happened to be someone's arm. He didn't wait for the person to cry out before he was moving on to the next individual, though by then the guards seemed to have caught on to what was happening and his arm was grabbed, his wrist squeezed tightly until the bloodied weapon was dropped. A kick to the back of the knees sent him down, and his wrists were bound tightly before he was forced to look up.

At Walker.

The man scowled at the teen, his fists clenched as if he was about to punch him, before he simply looked away.

"Take him inside."

"What about the other boy, sir?" one of the guards asked, and Walker sent him a dark glare.

"He doesn't have a clue where he is or where to go. Let him be." He scoffed. "The boy is weak now, anyway."

Alex bit back a cry of pain as he was pulled roughly to his feet, before being half dragged into the warehouse. He could only hope that Andrew had gotten away safely…

* * *

Rounding a corner, Andrew panted heavily as he tried to continue running, but it was difficult. Days without proper food and water made him dizzy, and all he wanted to do was lay down on the ground right then and never get up. But he knew that he couldn't – he didn't know where he was, and he needed to find a way out of there; or, at least find a way to contact someone, anyone, to tell them where he was. Or even just give them a phone to trace.

It was just his luck that, once he'd rounded another corner, he spotted a payphone booth.

It was strange to see one there, in the middle of nowhere, but he wasn't going to complain. Not when he realised that someone had left a couple of quarters in the booth itself (probably by accident) and thus gave him enough time to make one call.

One call, and he had to make it count.

Dialling one of the three numbers he could remember off the top of his head, he barely had enough time to catch his breath before the other person picked up.

" _Special Agent DiNozzo_."

Andrew could only pant as he tried to think of words to say, but his head was spinning. He had to say something. He had to tell Tony  _something_.

" _Hello?_ "

Finally, he got something out. "T-To… T-Tony…?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. " _Andrew? Andrew, is that you?_ "

As black crept into the edges of his vision, Andrew knew he only had the energy to get a few more words out.

"H-Help… me…"

That was the last thing he remembered before his knees gave way, his world going black as he fell to the ground.


	24. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! Hope you're all doing well! As you can see, I have another chapter up for you! Writing is going to be a lot slower now that I'm in the thick of uni life, but I've managed to get this out to you guys! I'm still hoping to finish this fic by the end of the year, so fingers crossed!  
> Enjoy!

Tony's eyes were practically glued to the screen as he continued to look through the traffic cam footage.

He was close, he could feel it. They had an approximate path to where the boys could be – to where he could guess the boys would be, anyway – and from what he could see his earlier assumptions had been correct. The van had been heading in the same direction as the industrial district Andrew had previously been taken to, which meant that there was a high chance that they had been taken to the same part of the industrial district.

Maybe even the same building.

Either way, Tony was getting more and more excited, and practically jumped for joy when he reached the final piece of footage.

Abby looked over with a raised eyebrow. "What? You've found them?"

Tony raised his arms in celebration. "We've got a 5-mile radius of where the boys could be!"

Abby's face lit up. "Only five miles?"

"And guess what building is in that area?" Bringing up the map, Tony pointed to a familiar warehouse building on what seemed to be the edges of the radius circled out. Abandoned and derelict even from a bird's eye satellite view, the warehouse didn't bring back a single good memory for Tony. Granted, he was glad that his hunch about the warehouse being used again was right, but he wasn't happy that they were going to head down there. Not one bit.

Not since Andrew would probably be in worse shape now than he had been back then. Then, he had been with rebellious naval officers. Now he was with ex-criminals in an agency that had once specialised in assassination.

He could only hope that Andrew was strong enough to last a little bit longer.

The agent was just turning to jump off his stool and call Gibbs down when his phone started vibrating in his pocket, and he frowned. Glancing over at Abby, she simply shrugged.

"Sometimes Boss-man knows you're done before you even know you're done," she commented before going back to attempting to decrypt the files on the flash drive – slow work, but she was getting there.

Tony shrugged, before flipping open the phone and putting it to his ear. "Special Agent DiNozzo," he answered, only to receive heavy breathing in return. He frowned slightly, looking over at Abby for a moment, who seemed to have noticed the unexpected conversation Tony was having. "Hello?"

The panting continued for a few more seconds, but before Tony could hang up a voice was heard. A very familiar voice.

" _T-To… T-Tony…?_ "

Tony's heart leapt into his throat at that. That was the last voice he expected to come over the phone, and now he was hearing it speak to him. "Andrew? Andrew, is that you?" he asked hurriedly, catching Abby's attention. He didn't even need to look at her to know that she'd quickly switched to tracing the call, and was alerting Gibbs to what was going on right at that moment.

His heart plummeted when he heard the next words come from Andrew's mouth.

" _H-Help… me…_ "

There was a thud on the other end, and Tony began to visibly panic, his eyes wide as he spoke hurriedly into the phone.

"Andrew? Andrew! Andrew, answer me, dammit!" At the lack of an answer, he turned to Abby. "Send us the location and get an ambulance there a.s.a.p.!" he commanded, before racing out of the room and up to the bullpen.

"Got it!"

* * *

The first thing Andrew could remember hearing was sirens. It was familiar, but not in a good way, and it forced him to open his eyes and actually try to find out what was going on. It took him what felt like a good while to get them open, but when he did he was met with the faces of two concerned individuals, one of whom he most definitely recognised.

"G… Gibbs…?" he asked. His brows furrowed when his voice came out muffled, and that was when he noticed there was an oxygen mask on his face.

A small, relieved smile broke out on Gibbs' face. "Hey, Andy."

"What…?" he started, though he found his train of thought stopping as soon as he began to ask the question.

"We found you in the payphone booth just after you called us," Gibbs explained to the boy gently. "Calling us was a great idea, but finding you unconscious wasn't the best."

Andrew blinked at that, before cracking a small smile of his own. "Didn't really think it through," he responded in his usual cheeky attitude, though his croaking voice gave away his fatigue.

Gibbs rolled his eyes at the teen, though he was still smiling. His smile dropped as soon as he realised Andrew had stopped smiling and had a deep frown on his face. "What's wrong?" he asked slowly.

"Where's Alex?"

Ah. Gibbs should have known that Andrew would ask that eventually, but honestly? He had been wondering the same thing. Last he'd known, it was the two boys who had been kidnapped, but now Andrew was here… without Alex.

What had happened?

When Gibbs didn't reply, Andrew's eyes widened and he began to try and push himself up into a sitting position. At that, both the paramedic checking over him and Gibbs pushed him back into a lying down position, the agent looking extremely concerned as the young woman began to reprimand Andrew for trying to move when she was checking him over.

"He's still in there!" Andrew was panicking now, trying to get the mask off his face so that he could be heard properly and get up. "Alex is still in there!"

"Andrew, calm down," Gibbs said sternly, still holding the boy down so that the mask could stay on his face. When he continued to struggle, Gibbs' eyes hardened. "Andrew!"

The boy stilled at the snap, looking up at Gibbs with wide eyes.

"You can't do anything in this condition. You're weak, and injured. You need to leave this to us." He gave the boy a pointed look – one that was responded to with a glare of defiance.

"I need to help."

"You need to recover."

"You have no idea where he is."

"He's in the warehouse."

"Yeah, but where in the warehouse?" At the lack of response from Gibbs, Andrew scowled. "See? You don't even know where. The warehouse is more complex than you think, Gibbs. You need my help, and you're not going to get it unless I come along."

Gibbs stared at Andrew in silence for a few moments, seeming to debate as to whether he should continue arguing with the boy or not – he made some pretty valid points, but the man's job was to protect him, not to put him in danger.

Andrew was his responsibility – and like hell he was going to put him in danger again.

"Hospital first," Gibbs finally responded, though when he saw the defiance appear on his face he rolled his eyes. "Hospital first, then we'll talk," he clarified.

Andrew still looked as if he wanted to fight the decision, but even he wasn't stupid enough to know that he needed a check-up before he could be cleared to help out the team with anything. Yeah, he was a victim here, but considering how shaky his health had been for the past year or so, it was a better idea to get himself looked over.

"Fine," he finally agreed, resisting the urge to scowl. He stopped resisting when he realised that Gibbs had noticed he was trying to resist and was smirking. "Don't think you've won anything."

"You say that like this is some sort of competition."

Andrew's scowl faded a little as Gibbs ran a rough-skinned hand through the teen's hair.

"I just need to make sure you're okay through and through, okay?"

Andrew sighed, the last traces of his scowl fading from his face. "Yes, Gibbs."

* * *

Alex's head hung low as he slumped on the seat, his eyes closed as he tried to get what little rest he could.

It wasn't that he wasn't allowed to sleep – in fact, he was pretty sure that he'd been given enough time to rest between Walker's "interrogation sessions" to regain the energy so that the sessions didn't get less entertaining for the man – but it was more the fact that he  _couldn't_  sleep. Because of the pain. Because he was hungry. Because he didn't know when Walker would return for him and didn't want himself or Andrew to be caught off-guard.

Though, now that Andrew had escaped, he was only keeping guard for himself.

Alex undoubtedly felt weaker than he had in a while – physically, rather than mentally. Yes, he was glad that Andrew was now free, and would most likely go straight to NCIS and get help for them both, but it also meant that he now had to bear the brunt of Walker's anger.

And considering he hadn't seen Walker since Andrew had disappeared…

_Alex cried out as his ribs were aggravated roughly, the teen being pulled to his feet with tight grips on his arms. It was just as they were switching the positions of their hands that Alex saw the opening, and he quickly twisted, sliding the butter knife from his sleeve before stabbing it into the nearest available limb – which happened to be someone's arm. He didn't wait for the person to cry out before he was moving on to the next individual, though by then the guards seemed to have caught on to what was happening and his arm was grabbed, his wrist squeezed tightly until the bloodied weapon was dropped. A kick to the back of the knees sent him down, and his wrists were bound tightly before he was forced to look up._

_At Walker._

_The man scowled at the teen, his fists clenched as if he was about to punch him, before he simply looked away._

" _Take him inside."_

" _What about the other boy, sir?" one of the guards asked, and Walker sent him a dark glare._

" _He doesn't have a clue where he is or where to go. Let him be." He scoffed. "The boy is weak now, anyway."_

_Alex bit back a cry of pain as he was pulled roughly to his feet, before being half dragged into the warehouse._

_As soon as they got inside, he was dropped mercilessly to the concrete ground in the main loading area of the warehouse – the large space they had first been brought to when they arrived._

_The same place Andrew had started panicking when they first arrived._

_He still hadn't asked about that. Huh._

_Ignoring the stabbing pain he got in his chest every time he moved, Alex shakily pushed himself up into a seated position to put himself at a better vantage point, should anything happen. At that point in time, he seemed to be alone in the warehouse – all of the guards had left the building, and it seemed as if Walker had disappeared off somewhere as soon as Alex had been dragged inside and left in the main warehouse area._

_He supposed he could appreciate what little peace he had whilst it lasted – he doubted that Walker would leave him for so long, honestly – and decided to lay back down slowly, his eyes drifting shut._

_After what felt like a few seconds, Alex was roughly awoken by a harsh kick to the side, the sudden pain causing him to cry out as he woke up. Opening his eyes, he knew that he shouldn't have been surprised to see Walker standing over him, a dark expression on his face._

" _Get him up."_

_Alex could only cry out as he was dragged to his feet, leaning heavily on the leg that wasn't broken. He could only watch Walker as the man moved closer to him and leaned right in his face, making sure that he was close enough that Alex couldn't look anywhere else without feeling awkward._

" _We will get the information I need from you, Alex, whether you end up completely broken at the end of this or not. Mark my words."_

Alex's eyes opened when he heard the creaking of a door, and he looked up to see one of Walker's guards enter the room, a blank expression on his face as he approached the teen with what looked to be a cup of water and a small slice of bread.

Which was most likely stale, if what Alex had experienced for the past few days was any indication.

Putting the tray down on the floor in front of Alex, the man moved to untie the bonds from his hands, allowing him to move and pick up the measly meal Walker had ordered for him. Sending the man a questioning look, he simply shrugged as he headed out of the room.

"Walker doesn't want you to die before he gets what he needs."

The door slammed almost as soon as that sentence was out of the guard's mouth, and Alex pursed his lips.

He sure hoped Andrew got there soon.

Leaning down slowly, he managed to pick up the stale piece of bread when something akin to a memory flashed across his mind, and he frowned.

_He looked over his shoulder as he sprinted down the alleyway. Were they still chasing him? The echoing sound of pounding footsteps gave him his answer. He mentally groaned._

The last time he'd felt like this…

_They were still after him._

_He_ had _to lose them._

Shutting his eyes tightly, he barely had time to sit himself upright before he started feeling light-headed, slumping back into the seat as a memory suddenly returned to him.

_Alex couldn't understand how he'd gotten lost. Honestly, he was pretty sure he had been following right after Sabina and Liz the whole time. It couldn't really be this hard to lose them in the middle of a shopping mall._

_Then again, this was a very big, very busy shopping mall. It would be easy for anyone to get lost here._

_After moving around aimlessly for a few moments, he began to alternate between actually looking for Sabina and Liz, and looking at the different shops that people were walking in and out of. He knew that at some point he'd have to either ask for an announcement to be made or head back to the car, considering they were on their way to visit a family friend later, but for now at least he could just chill on his own. Well, not really on his own, since there were so many people around and it was beginning to make him a little claustrophobic, but he didn't have Sabina constantly chatting and trying to fill the silences that came between them._

_Just as he was passing what was probably the third sports shop he'd seen (maybe he could convince Liz and Sabina to let him get some sports stuff so he could get back into football… no,_ soccer _again), he felt a tap on his shoulder. Frowning slightly, and wondering why Sabina hadn't just decided to call out his name instead of tapping when she knew he could be a very jumpy person, he turned._

_And promptly froze._

_The man from the corner was stood there, along with two other men. All three men were in black suits (and why that didn't look suspicious to anyone else around them, Alex would never know), but that wasn't what put Alex on edge._

_No, that was the tattoo of the scorpion he could see on one of the men's necks – a tattoo that looked far too familiar._

_A tattoo of…_

"Scorpia," Alex breathed, his eyes opening. Things were beginning to click now.

SCORPIA, or whoever these guys were working under now, had been after him as soon as they found out where he was. That was why the man was waiting for him outside the hotel. They'd been after him from the start.

Him being placed at that crime scene was just a coincidence. And, ironically, a blessing. Because he was pretty sure that if he hadn't been found at a crime scene, either he would be dead, or the Pleasures would be in a whole lot more danger than they were at that moment in time.

It was just a coincidence that he knew that guy, whoever had been murdered, because the remnants of SCORPIA were after both of them. Him, because he'd brought them down numerous times before utterly destroying them, and the man… because he had some sort of information on them that they wanted.

And somehow, he knew he was also involved in how the man had obtained the information on that flash drive.

Great.

Maybe if he could just remember everything that tied him and that guy (Marks, was it?) together, he could figure out exactly what Walker wanted and how to stop him before he got it…

Suddenly, he heard a creak, and Alex looked up sharply to see that a door leading into the warehouse had opened.

And Walker was walking through.

Alex gulped. He was in for a  _real_  treat.


	25. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Apologies for the fairly long absence! I'm well and truly into uni life now, so I'm feeling that this may be the last update you get from me for a little while. I'll be posting again around Christmas, though! Maybe not that much, but I'm still aiming to get this story done by the end of this year so I can go back to focusing on its sequel.

Sitting at her desk, Ziva tapped impatiently on the desk in front of her as she waited for news. McGee was sat at his own desk, and she knew that he was waiting as well, but for some reason she felt that slight bit more impatient than he.

Shown by the look of irritation on his face as he looked up from his computer and over at her.

"Could you stop that?"

She hesitated, her pen hovering in the air, as she looked over at McGee. "I am sorry?"

"Quit tapping your pen on the desk. It's irritating."

"It is not my fault I am on the brink."

McGee rolled his eyes at her. "You're on  _edge_ , Ziva. And it's okay to be worried – I didn't say anything against that. I said stop  _tapping_."

She scoffed. "You would rather that I pace?"

"I don't think this office needs worn floors, Ms David."

Both agents looked up to see Director Vance descending the staircase leading up to his office. His sharp eyes roamed over the office floor briefly before landing on the MCRT's bullpen, and he completed his descent before entering the bullpen to speak to the two agents.

"I've been updated on the situation," he informed them both, and when both agents straightened up his lips quirked up into the smallest of smiles. "Andrew has been found and is currently being checked over by paramedics. According to DiNozzo, they should be taking him to the hospital in the next ten minutes or so."

"Ten minutes?" Ziva cried, at the same time McGee gave a doubtful, "Hospital?"

"Will he be okay for ten minutes?" the female agent demanded, a deep frown of concern present on her face. Andrew was almost like a little brother to her, someone she cared about and felt responsibility for – if he had passed out at a phonebooth, then they had better be taking good enough care of him to allow recovery.

"According to DiNozzo, he's awake and talking now."

"But how long is he actually going to stay in the hospital?" McGee asked, and when the other two turned to him with looks of confusion on their faces, he decided to elaborate. "Has no one else noticed that the longer the Parkson kids have been living with Gibbs, the more stubborn they appear to get? If Gibbs hates staying put when there's a case to solve, what about Andrew? Pretty sure he'll be one of the first to want to get revenge."

"Did Tony mention anything about Alex?" Ziva asked, the worry appearing on her face again.

"Unfortunately, no." The NCIS Director didn't miss the hissed curse Ziva gave. "Is there something important pertaining to him that we need to know?"

The female agent glanced to McGee for a moment, seemingly looking for some sort of confirmation that what she was about to say would be the right thing to say, before launching into her explanation.

"Considering we already know that Alex has some long-lasting ties with SCORPIA, I decided to take a closer look at the list that was on the hard-drive and compare them with the names of agents that have been given to me by my contacts." Moving towards the TV, she picked up the clicker from Gibbs' desk and brought up some pictures on the screen. "These are the individuals that Alex may have come into contact with, when compared with the mission files we obtained from MI6."

"You hacked MI6?" Vance directed his attention to McGee, who gave him a sheepish smile. He sighed. "I know nothing about this."

"It never happened," McGee responded dutifully, before Ziva continued.

"Then there is the list of agents on the hard drive that are known SCORPIA agents, but Alex would have been unlikely to come into contact with at any point in his life." Another click, and more photographs appeared on the screen. "Of course, the majority of these individuals have now been detained or killed, or are in unknown locations and have not been seen since the fall of SCORPIA earlier this summer," she explained, "apart from these men."

Clicking again, all of the images disappeared apart from a handful, with two of them larger and much clearer than the rest. Ziva walked up to the screen and tapped on the first of the two images.

"Agent William Carrol," she introduced, gesturing to the individual with short, dark hair and dark eyes, staring back at them with an indifferent expression on his face. "An ex-CIA agent who earned the nickname 'Walker' when he hiked ten miles to track down a lost lead. According to fellow agents, the lack of commendation he received in his time there slowly drove him mad, and he left, never to be seen again." Clicking once, an airport feed was brought up on the screen. "This footage was taken in 2011, in Italy. Rome, to be exact. Carrol was spotted arriving at the airport following a flight from the U.S. However, he was never seen actually leaving the airport, and there is no further footage of him out in the city… or the entire country, to be exact. The closest we've got to it would be earlier this month, when it was suspected that he arrived on American soil under an alias." Another video popped up onto the screen, this one a lot less clear. "Unfortunately, the footage appears to be damaged – we do not know why or how, but it can be assumed that this man is in the country.

"This man, on the other hand," the second individual's picture came forward. "His name is—"

"His name is Dominic Harrison." The voice came from the elevator, and all three individuals in the bullpen turned to see Lisa Harrison approaching, a dark expression on her face.

There was a thick silence as the unasked question floated about the bullpen, before Lisa's lips pursed, her eyes meeting those of every person there before finally landing on the image of the man on the screen.

The man with the same fair hair and blue eyes as the woman stood before them right then.

"He… he's my brother."

* * *

Opening his eyes slowly, Andrew wasn't surprised at all to find that he was in a hospital bed. Granted, the room was nowhere near as bright as he was used to when first waking up in a hospital bed, but there was the same overly-clean smell and the slightly rough sheets surrounding him. Pushing himself up into a sitting position with a wince, he decided to glance around the room.

The empty room.

The definitely surprised him. Usually when he woke up in a hospital bed, there was at least one person in the room with him, either asleep or watching over him. And since Gibbs often accompanied him for his check-ups, he was also used to the smell of strong black coffee filling the room. Being alone in a hospital room like this was a foreign and kind of scary feeling for him.

Then again… it meant that there was no one in the room to watch him if he tried to get away.

Looking down, he realised that he had an IV line running into his arm, and he followed the line up to the bag hanging beside his bed. Even he wasn't stupid enough to carelessly rip the needle from his arm – the line was probably giving him the nutrients he had been missing for the past few days he'd been locked up, and whilst he was very grateful for that, right now he had more pressing matters at hand.

Slowly pulling the needle from his left arm, he winced at the slight stab of pain it caused before hanging the line over the IV bag beside his bed. He pushed down on the tape used to hold the needle in his arm to staunch the slight bleeding, before pushing the sheets off and swinging his legs off the bed.

Andrew had to admit, he was fairly wobbly on his feet for a few moments. Of course, he had recently been kidnapped and was fairly malnourished (considering his diet had been wobbly recently anyway), but that wasn't going to stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He  _had_  to help Alex.

That boy was battered and bruised and being left in there at the mercy of Walker could only end badly.

Making his way slowly over to the door, Andrew' brows furrowed when he heard voices on the other side of the door. The voices were familiar, but he barely had the time to register whose they were before the door opened, and a nurse walked into the room, turning the light on so that she could tend to the patient that should have been in the bed.

Needless to say, she got a real shock when she realised Andrew was standing right in front of her, eyes wide.

"What are you  _doing_?!" she practically screamed, and the teen jumped back, stumbling a few steps before falling back onto his butt. "You should  _not_  be up and moving about! And your IV line!" She put her hands on her hips, glaring at the boy. "You get back into bed right this instant, young man! You should not be up and moving around! Not when your blood sugar is so low!"

Andrew opened his mouth to speak, but the nurse was talking over him in an instant, drowning out whatever he wanted to say.

"You have been malnourished for a while! You shouldn't be moving around when you haven't yet recovered, and you  _especially_  should not be removing the IV line providing you with the nutrients you need to recover!"

"But I—"

"No excuses! Get back into that bed!"

"No!"

The woman appeared startled at Andrew's yelled answer, before she narrowed her eyes at him, making his own eyes widen as he began to shuffle back along the ground. "Excuse me—"

"What's going on in here?"

Both Andrew and the nurse turned towards the door, where Gibbs stood with Doctor Martins. The male agent had a single eyebrow raised as he looked between the two, whilst the young doctor sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them and glaring at Andrew.

"Get back into that damn bed, Parkson."

Andrew scowled at the doctor. "That's not very hospitable of you, doctor."

"Don't test my patience."

"I bet you asked for my case so that you could take care of me, didn't you?"

A look of irritation passed across her face. "I got stuck with you because I've worked with you before and have good knowledge of your present conditions. Now get back onto the bed."

Andrew stared at the doctor for a few moments, a look of defiance appearing on his face just as he responded, "No."

There was silence for a few moments as Andrew's response sunk in, before the nurse's face reddened.

" _Andrew Parkson_ —"

"I'll take him."

Both the nurse and the doctor turned quickly to face the agent who had just spoken, their eyes wide. Of all the people they expected to keep Andrew in bed, Gibbs had to be at the top of the list. So for him to be supporting Andrew actually getting out of bed, against the doctor's wishes, and straining himself… there had to be something wrong.

Before the nurse could explode at him, Doctor Martins placed a hand on his arm, catching his attention. "Agent Gibbs, a word, please?" she murmured, her eyes shifting towards the door. The agent followed her gaze, before nodding, following her out of the door.

As soon as the door had shut behind him, the young woman turned to him sharply. "Okay, what do you need Andrew for?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing. When he simply raised his eyebrows in response, she gritted her teeth. "Look, I know that you care a lot for his health, and you wouldn't try to get him out of the hospital unless it was absolutely necessary. So I want to know why exactly you're taking him out so that I can assess the risks and decide whether to let him go with you or not."

"Assess the risks…?" Gibbs simply raised both eyebrows at the doctor, as if asking her a question in return.

She pursed her lips and gave him a firm look. "Don't let the boy do anything stupid, and I'll let him go."

"That boy is stubborn."

"Yeah, he's as stubborn as you, which is why I'm hoping you tell him to do the right thing and  _rest_  after all he's been through. That boy is a  _teenager_. He shouldn't have to handle this much at such a young age."

The way Gibbs' eyes hardened showed that he at least agreed with what the doctor was saying, but they both knew that he would balance his protection of the boy with whatever he could do to save Alex. There was no way he would ever risk Andrew's life, but if the boy could help out even a little bit with the case, then he would take what he could.

"So is Alex," was his simple answer, before he headed towards the front desk.

Doctor Martins scowled as she watched him walk away. "Where are you going?"

Gibbs glanced at her over his shoulder. "To get his discharge papers. He'll never rest unless we get him released."

The redhead let out a slow, tired sigh as she watched the male agent walk away.

Honestly, if anything was going to kill her on the job, it was Agent Gibbs and his son.

* * *

Alex gasped as he felt another hit to his stomach, causing him to instinctively curl into a ball. Which would have worked, had he not been bound tightly to the chair by his arms and legs, keeping him in an upright position that made him prone to being injured. All he wanted to do right then was sleep, or at least do anything that will lessen the pain, but there was no way that Walker would let him do that.

Not when he was currently trying to beat the information he wanted out of Alex.

As soon as Walker had entered the room, the teen had been dragged backwards out of the room and down to one of the cells that he was pretty sure he had never been in before. And all whilst he was still sitting in that chair, his arms and legs secured around it. And then Walker had got to work.

Still gasping for breath, the teen's eyes flitted up to where Walker stood over him, his dark eyes manic as he grinned sinisterly at Alex.

"You sound a little short of breath there, Alex. Like you've been for a run."

"Funny you should say that. There's not much room to sprint in here."

Another blow to the stomach made Alex cry out in pain, too winded to take in another breath for a good few seconds. When he'd finally recovered, he winced as he tried to breathe in as deeply as he could, attempting to get some air into his lungs. His ribs ached, with the occasional stab of pain shooting through his chest; he could feel his leg throbbing from where it was being held against the chair leg tightly in an awkward position; bruises all over his body ached from where Walker and his guards had been ruthless.

He desperately wanted out.

"You really do think you're funny, don't you?" the man teased lowly, leaning down and putting his face very close to the teen's own, which was covered with a sheen of sweat. "Your sense of humour isn't the best, Rider. Maybe you should work on that."

"I guess I will, since I seem to have a lot of time in here."

"I suggest you work quickly. I'm not a very patient man."

The two stared at each other for a few moments, Alex's eyes hardened in defiance, before Walker straightened up, a smirk on his face. "I suppose I'll have to give you time to work on that, Rider." The man turned to head towards the door, leaving Alex behind looking utterly confused.

As soon as he reached the door, Walker turned to look over his shoulder at Alex, still smirking. "Oh, and Alex? You  _are_  a strong swimmer, right?"

Alex's eyes widened as the door closed behind Walker, understanding the implications of what the man was doing.

This was a water-tight room.

If he wasn't found soon, he would drown.


	26. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! Again, sorry for the gap in times between updating - being a 3rd year at uni is haaaaard. But, anyway, I've got this next chapter up for you, so I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Read on, guys, and enjoy!

Ziva didn't know whether to be surprised or angry when she spotted Andrew walking into the bullpen with Gibbs only a couple of hours after he'd been reported found and hospitalised.

Surprised because, hey, it's Andrew, he's alive and he's up and walking already!

But angry because, hey, it's Andrew, he's alive but he's  _up and walking already_.

When the teen hesitated upon seeing the conflicted expression on her face, she decided to go for angry.

" _What_  are you doing out of hospital?!" she demanded, stalking towards him (and getting some sort of sick satisfaction when she caught him stumbling back a few steps).

Instead of the teen stuttering out an answer, though, Gibbs spoke up as he strode into the bullpen, a fresh cup of black coffee in his hands as he headed straight for the screen. "He's helping us out. What've you got for me?"

The two agents who'd remained shared a glance, before going on to explain their findings.

"Well, after Tony told us the area he'd managed to track the van to, I decided to have a look at security cameras in the area," McGee explained, bringing up a few photos on the screen. Images of the industrial area appeared, and with a few clicks McGee managed to focus on one particular image – it wasn't clear, but there was a fuzzy image of what looked to be a van in one of the parking lots for the warehouses. "As you can guess, that's the van we were tracking down. And that exact warehouse," an image of a map appeared on the screen, with a circle around the warehouse in question, "happens to be one we've most definitely visited before. Which gives us an advantage."

"No, it doesn't," Andrew commented, causing all heads to turn towards him. His cheeks reddened a little, before he decided to explain. "The guy who kidnapped us, the guy in charge, he knew about that warehouse. He knew I had ties to it. I don't know how or why, but he did. And he also knows that there's an underground storage floor which contains concrete rooms that could be used as cells – which were the rooms he kept Alex and I in."

McGee's brows furrowed. "How? There isn't anything on the blueprints…"

"There's a door next to the one you come in through. It was bolted and locked when I was first there, but…"

"He must've found a way to get past that and get down there," McGee finished with a sigh. "I guess I'll have to see if I can get blueprints for that floor."

"I can guide you down as much as I can when you get there," Andrew offered, making McGee smile in sympathy.

"Not when you should be resting."

"Look, Gibbs brought me out of the hospital to help. I'm helping. Right?" Andrew turned to Gibbs with an expectant look on his face.

The older man just sipped his coffee, glancing between the teen and the agent as if to tell them to sort it out themselves.

McGee pursed his lips at that, clearly not agreeing with Gibbs' choice of action, but one look at his boss reminded him that it wasn't wise to go against his decisions unless you wanted to be yelled at or have your head placed on a spike.

"Fine, but don't do anything stupid." As Andrew opened his mouth to say something along the lines of, "I usually don't," all three of the agents sent him a look that made the words die in his mouth.

"I suppose if you are helping us, then you can help with this," Ziva suggested, moving closer to the screen as a multitude of images of individuals appeared on the screen. At the looks of confusion on Gibbs and Andrew's faces, she decided to elaborate. "As I explained to Agent Harrison and the Director earlier—"

"Wait, you've spoken with the Director?" Andrew interrupted, though Ziva decided to ignore him and promptly continue.

"—these people are individuals likely to have crossed with Alex at any point since his missions with MI6 began…" The female agent sent a glance Andrew's way. "I'm assuming you didn't know about him being employed by them?"

"Oh, I know he was blackmailed," Andrew responded casually, his eyes focused on the photos on the screen, "so you can continue."

"Wait, what?" McGee spluttered, his eyes wide.

"Ziva, continue," Gibbs interrupted, before the conversation could go off-track.

Ziva glanced between Andrew and McGee, before doing as she was told. "Yes, so these are all of the different individuals related to SCORPIA that Alex could have come into contact with in the past couple of years. The only individuals we've actually seen recently are these two." The photos of Walker and Dominic Harrison got larger on the screen, and Andrew visibly tensed.

"I've seen that man," he said as he pointed at Walker's photo. "He's the one in charge of the torture. He wants the data off the flash drive you found with Alex, and he also has some sort of grudge against him."

Ziva's eyebrows rose. "You can confirm that it is Walker you have met?"

"Yeah," Andrew nodded. "His hair is a different colour, probably because he dyes it, but it's definitely him." His eyes drifted over o the other man. "I might have seen that man in one of our… interrogation sessions, but I haven't properly met him. He's definitely man-handled Alex a good few times, though. And his hair is different too."

"Do you recognise any of the other faces on the screen?" Gibbs asked as he sipped on his coffee, looking over at Andrew expectantly. The teen stared at the screen for a few moments, his eyes roaming over the other faces on the screen, before he shook his head.

"All the people on the screen look too old," he explained. "Most of the people working for that Walker guy seemed to be much younger."

"Recent recruits that escaped punishment?" Ziva asked.

"Or local delinquents in it for the cash," McGee suggested, which made Andrew scowl.

"Local delinquents who are willing to kidnap a pair of teenagers and allow them to be tortured?" Andrew asked with raised eyebrows. "That's sick. Would anyone really do that?"

Ziva raised her eyebrows. "Were you not recently kidnapped? It is very possible."

The teen scowled at her. "That's not what I meant, and you know that."

"Andrew," Gibbs warned as Ziva narrowed her eyes at him.

"That makes me wonder where all of these people are," McGee muttered as his eyes scanned over the rest of the faces on the screen. "If Walker is searching for them, and these people haven't been accounted for—"

"Then they're still out there," Gibbs finished, a deep frown on his face.

There was a brief silence as those in the bullpen absorbed that information, before Ziva spoke up.

"That is where Agent Harrison has gone," she said, looking between the three males in the bullpen with her. "She has gone to flush out the names on the list."

"And probably find her brother," McGee added.

Gibbs' eyes narrowed. "And no one had to common sense to go with her?"

"No, actually, Tony's following her," McGee corrected. "He called saying he spotted her out on a prowl and decided to tail her." At the look Gibbs gave him for the words he used, the agent held up his hands in surrender. "Those were his words, not mine."

"Then if he is with Agent Harrison, we should go after Alex," Ziva suggested. "She will eventually go after her brother there, if he is there, so perhaps we should head straight there and find a way to get Alex out." She turned to McGee. "Is there a complete blueprint of the building anywhere?"

McGee pursed his lips as he began typing away at his computer. "I'll have a look. There weren't any when we last needed the blueprints." He looked up at Andrew. "If there aren't, you're gonna have to guide us through."

Andrew nodded. "Got it." Glancing to the others, he offered a weak smile.

He could only hope that they got there quickly enough to save Alex.

* * *

_Alex knew, above all things, that if there was one reason to hate small spaces, it was this._

_Yes, he had kind of volunteered himself to crawl into the building through the window and see what was going on to relay back to the agents, but the fact that he was doing this without his uncle even knowing…_

_He was going to get in so much trouble for this. If his uncle ever found out, of course._

_Pressing himself against the wall, he slowly began to move towards the next nearest hiding spot – a couch with enough space beneath it for someone of his size to hide. The window he'd entered through appeared to lead to a lounge, which had a couple of couches in it, as well as an old television facing out from one of the corners. Alex hadn't had the chance to look around much, but he could tell that there were decorations covering the walls – after all, what kind of pretend house would it be if the walls were blank and gave the feeling of no one living there?_

_He froze as he was crawling under the couch when he heard noises, his eyes widening. He knew that those two agents had mentioned the safe house being used by people, and he'd seen someone go in earlier, but the fact that he could actually hear the people moving around and talking reminded him of how much danger he'd voluntarily put himself in. Heck, he didn't even know what kind of people were using the safehouse! They could be serious criminals who wouldn't hesitate to hurt a minor, and Alex wouldn't realise until he was—_

" _Are you sure you heard a noise in here?"_

" _I thought I did. Guess I was wrong."_

" _You mean you guess you were just being paranoid? Honestly, if they don't know anything, there's nothing to make them suspect you now. You haven't done anything to tip them off, have you?"_

" _Well… no."_

" _Then quit being paranoid."_

_Alex stayed silent as the footsteps retreated, the two voices continuing to talk as they headed further and further away from the lounge area Alex was hidden in. He waited until he couldn't hear the voices anymore, before deciding to move slowly out of his hiding spot and take a brief look around the room. He had been right in assuming there were decorations in there, but plain paintings didn't quite make the room as lively as photos would've. But he supposed if this was a safehouse, they didn't want to give anything away._

_He snuck over to the door quietly, thanking his uncle and housekeeper, Jack, for all the times they'd provided him with the opportunity to sneak out of his bed at night to do what he wanted. Not that he thought they knew – or, at least, he_ _**hoped** _ _they didn't know about it. He still wanted the chance to be able to do that when he got home._

_Reaching the archway leading out into the hallway, Alex poked his head out to have a brief look about for anyone coming his way, before sneaking out into the corridor, hugging the walls as he moved. Like the lounge, the hallway was neutrally coloured – plain walls and wooden floors – with paintings hung up on the walls that gave away no idea of who could possibly living in the house, if an intruder were to enter. There was a staircase leading to an upper floor, and behind him was a door he assumed to be the front door, if the light shining through the windowpanes in the door was any indication._

_Sneaking further along, he paused when he heard voices, this time coming from further down the corridor. He took one last look around, before deciding to hide beneath a display table right next to the door he assumed the voices were coming from, and he stayed quiet to listen._

" _So you're sure I can get in?"_

" _I'm certain. All we have to do is get in a good word for you, and they'll contact you about what you need to do next."_

" _But… how is it even that simple?"_

" _Look, it's what happened with me, alright? And the others. So it logically follows that it should happen with you too."_

_Alex jumped when he suddenly heard a burst of static in his ear, nearly hitting his head on the table above him. He'd completely forgotten about the earpiece and microphone he'd been given before the two agents sent him in, and now they were contacting him on it._

' _Hey, kid, you found anything?'_

_Alex glanced around a few times to make sure there wasn't anyone around to listen, before lifting his sleeve to his mouth and beginning to speak into the microphone. "I think so? I'm not sure. There are people in here, though."_

' _There are? Great.' Alex mentally noted that that sounded very sarcastic. 'Are they talking?'_

" _Yeah, they're in a room talking about something. Not sure what, though."_

' _Listen in and get back to us.'_

_Alex put his arm down and focused back on the conversation._

"… _You're absolutely sure?"_

" _Yes! Look, if you help me in this mission, this'll just prove that you're serious about the job. It's not a long mission, but it'll make you seem useful to them. And that's what you want."_

" _They're talking about some sort of mission…" Alex murmured into the microphone. He had no idea what sort of mission they were talking about, but it sounded serious. "Maybe if I go in there…"_

' _Don't do anything stupid, kid. If you feel you're in danger, get out of there.'_

" _Okay." Alex began to crawl closer to the door, kneeling in front of it and staring up at the door handle. It was easy enough to open, but one small creak and he was done for. He could only pray that it wouldn't be the door that gave him away._

_Reaching up, he slowly turned the handle until he felt a gentle click, then began to push the door open until he'd formed a gap large enough for him to slide through. As soon as he'd made his way through the gap, he closed the door silently, before leaning back against it and looking around._

_The room appeared to be some sort of office – filled with bookshelves and tables that provided perfect hiding spaces, as well as a good few computers that were currently running. There were a few chairs scattered around the room as well, two of which were in the far corner, where the two individuals were still talking._

" _So as long as this mission is completed—"_

" _They'll see that you're on my side and want in."_

_Glancing around the room again, Alex noticed that one of the computer screens was different to the rest – on it were two lists, though from where he was crouched he couldn't see what was on the screens. Deciding to take his chance whilst the two were still talking about some sort of mission or whatever, he slowly began to make his way over to it, hiding behind tables and shelves as he went. Upon reaching the whirring machine, he peered up at the screen._

_The lists appeared to be names – whose names, he had no idea, but somehow he felt that they were important. At least, important to those CIA agents outside. If only he had a camera or some way to get the information to them; he couldn't write down all the names (he doubted he had enough time, didn't have a pen or paper, and wasn't a fast enough writer anyway) and there was no way he could remember them all anyway (though he could hands down remember the name of every single person on the Chelsea squad this year). Frowning, he tried to think of a way to get the information out to the agents._

_That was when he spotted the flash drive plugged into the computer base system, and he smiled. Maybe if the information was already_ _**on** _ _there…_

" _Oi! What the hell?!"_

_Alex froze. Oh no…_

Breathing heavily, Alex grit his teeth as he came out of another flashback. Well, not exactly a flashback. This one, he knew was a memory he'd pushed far back into his mind, and had paid no attention to it for years. A memory that could be vital for the agents back at NCIS if they wanted to solve this case.

Of course, that was only if they found him in time, he realised as he lightly kicked at the water pooling around his feet. The information would only help them if he got out of this situation.

Alive.


	27. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! Merry Christmas Eve! Yeah... it's been forever since I last posted. And chances are I won't finish this before the end of this year, lol. I've been trying really hard to write, but I'm in my third year of uni, and so I've got a lab research project running alongside exams that are coming up in January. I promise that I'll at least have this fic done by my birthday (late April, whooop whoop) but there are a good few chapters left. I'm really trying though!
> 
> So, thank you all for coming with me this far, and enjoy the next chapter!

Tony was practically scowling as he slouched in his driver's seat, trying as much as possible to hide from view and make it seem as if the car was empty. He honestly didn't get why he was wasting his time on this, since it didn't seem like there was going to be much action, but he supposed now that he'd started he might as well continue.

The moment Gibbs had told him that Andrew was going to be released and he was signing the papers, Tony had received a call from Vance –  _Vance_ , of all people – telling him about what was going on with Harrison. Not much was said, but the moment he'd been told to tail her he'd sped off to the nearest location Vance had assumed she would be.

" _Abby showed me a mission file from the flash drive you guys managed to get into, and there's one mission file that caught my eye in particular."_

_Tony's eyebrows rose as he held the phone to his ear. "Oh?"_

" _One of these files mentions one of the CIA safehouses, and this same file is the one that first mentions a list of names…"_

Tony had to admit, he was fairly surprised that Vance had got it spot on, which had only been made evident by the fact that Tony spotted her walking out of the safehouse as soon as he'd arrived there and had watched her from a distance. And so the tail began.

Except he seemed to be watching her go into multiple houses in various locations with nothing else happening – no gun shots, no arrests, no fights.

"This is so damn boring," he muttered to himself. "Can't she at least do something more entertaining?"

He was startled out of his thoughts when there was a knock on the window of the passenger door to the car, and he looked up sharply to see Agent Harrison stood there, her arms folded and eyes narrowed at him. He blinked for a few moments, before smiling sweetly at her and unlocking the door, pushing it open for her.

"Come in, why don't you?" he called out to her, which only caused her to scowl at him before she actually took him up on his offer and got into the car, shutting the door behind her. There were a few moments of silence between the two agents, before Tony decided to open his mouth.

"So, to what do I owe this visit?" he asked casually. "I'm pretty surprised to see you here. You don't frequent this part of town, do you?"

"Why are you tailing me" the woman demanded, completely ignoring his question and deciding to get to the point. She was not, apparently, in the mood to humour him.

"Why, do you think you need to be tailed?" he asked, raising a challenging eyebrow in response.

"Don't answer my question with a question," she snapped. "You're butting in on my business, and I deserve to know what you're doing."

Tony snorted, rolling his eyes at her. "Deserve?" He slunk down so that he was slouching in the seat again. "What you  _deserve_  is to tell me exactly what you're doing going into all those safehouses." When he noticed her stiffen slightly out of the corner of his eye, he smirked. "Oh, so they  _are_  safehouses…"

"What do you want, DiNozzo?"

"Our case, our jurisdiction. You don't get to go on a vengeance spree just because you saw some list of names—"

"I'm not on a vengeance spree."

Tony stopped, giving her a confused look. "What?"

"You heard me."

He blinked. "Then… what…?"

Lisa focused her eyes out of the front windscreen, staying silent as she apparently thought about what she wanted to say, before finally opening her mouth to speak.

"That list of names you have? It's incomplete." When all she received was silence from Tony, she decided to continue. "When we obtained the original flash drive, there were at least two lists on it – one of which was of the SCORPIA agents who had infiltrated the CIA; and one of them a list of targets, who were basically people who knew about SCORPIA within the CIA. Peter only managed to get the list of agents before the original flash drive was taken from him, but we never saw it again. And I feel like I know who took it." She looked over at Tony. "Which is why I'm now searching through all the safehouses that person may have used. The flash drive is hidden within the CIA, and I need to find it."

Tony was silent as he took in that information, lips pursed. "And why am I getting the feeling that you know this person personally."

Harrison as quiet for a good few moments, before she finally spoke up. "Because I do. And no, it's not my brother this time, but he and my brother were close. And he disappeared not long before my brother did."

Tony nodded slowly. "And you're not going to stop until you've got that flash drive."

Her face hardened. "That flash drive was responsible for the deaths of a good few agents, I'm sure of it. It needs to be in the right hands."

"And those are yours right now?"

"Better than SCORPIA's."

Tony remained silent at that. He knew she had a point – there was no way they could trust what remained of SCORPIA with  _anything_ , considering they currently had a teenage boy at their mercy. But at the same time… he knew as well as anyone else that letting someone go out on a vengeance mission like this could only make matters worse. And right now, they didn't need matters to be made worse.

Before he could try and say anything to pacify her, his phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out, checking it with a frown on his face. His frown only deepened when he read the message. "We're needed."

She raised a single eyebrow at him. "Don't you mean,  _you_?" she questioned.

"Nope, both of us." He sat up fully in his seat, getting ready to start the car. "You want to grab your own car and follow me?"

"That'd be a waste of gas."

"Then you'd better buckle up."

* * *

Andrew was sat silently in the back of the car as they headed towards their destination.

The warehouse.

He knew he should be having bad feelings heading back there – after all, he'd been kidnapped twice, and both of those times he'd ended up there, getting injured – but all that was on his mind at that moment in time was getting Alex out of there alive.

The last he'd seen of the other guy, he'd tried to run with a broken leg and had promptly collapsed, not getting back up and allowing himself to be recaptured by their kidnappers. And as much as Andrew had wanted to help him, he knew that Alex was right in assuming he'd slow them down.

But that just made the teen feel terrible.

Maybe that was why he was pushing so hard to help out on this rescue mission – to make up for his inability to save Alex when he needed the help. Leaving men behind was not what people in the armed forces did – it's not the type of person he was brought up to be, and he was sure of it.

After what felt like a good while of driving (at least, since they left NCIS headquarters), the car slowly came to a stop at a spot Andrew vaguely recognised. Leaning close to the window, he frowned deeply as he tried to find what made him recognise the spot.

That was when he realised there was a phone box there, and his breath hitched.

They were just around the corner.

As soon as the car came to a stop, Andrew moved to unbuckle himself, reaching for the latch to open the door.

"Woah, hang on," McGee called out, reaching back from the passenger seat to grab Andrew's arm before he could leave the car. "You're not going anywhere."

Andrew frowned over at the agent. "What?"

"Stay in the car," Gibbs commanded, glancing back at Andrew as the three agents got out of the car and shut the doors behind them.

Andrew watched the three agents in confusion as they stood outside the car, seemingly discussing something. He had a feeling he knew exactly why he'd been told to stay in the car, and he also knew that he wasn't going to like it when he was eventually told to get out of the car, if he was even  _told_  to get out.

It seemed as if a good few minutes passed before another car approached, and Andrew's eyes were focused on it as it parked across the street from the car he sat in. His eyebrows rose as Tony emerged from the car and crossed the street to where Gibbs and the others stood, followed by Agent Harrison. The teen watched them all with a mild expression of curiosity on his face as the five of them gathered to have some sort of conversation. A heated conversation if Tony's expressive hand movements were any indication.

"What the hell…?" Andrew murmured, before deciding that whatever punishment he was going to get would be worth it and climbing out of the car as silently as he could.

"Boss, you  _know_  what that kid is like!"

"Tony, he's not even going to be in the firing line."

"No, but he'll find a way to get himself there! Because he's a reckless idiot!"

"He must have observed that personality trait in someone else."

"I don't need your scathing comments right now, Ziva!"

"I personally agree with the whole involving a child in a case thing."

"Weren't you and Alex involved in a pretty dangerous case a while back? You have no right to comment on this!"

Andrew's eyes widened as the arguing hit his ears. He knew from the way he'd seen Tony's arms move that he should have expected to hear the arguing as soon as he opened the door, but he was surprised to hear Tony sound so angry at everyone else. That didn't sound like the Tony he was used to…

"Boss, you  _cannot_  let him help us. He'll be in too much danger if he does."

The teen bristled at that. Andrew knew exactly who Tony was talking about. He also knew what would happen if he decided to speak up right then, but that wasn't going to stop him.

"Oh yeah, like  _you_  can stop me," Andrew spoke up, causing all heads to turn towards him.

Gibbs' eyes hardened. "I thought I told you to stay in the car?" he said, a warning tone to his voice that the teen promptly decided to ignore in favour of standing for his own argument.

"Whilst you guys are talking about me? No thanks."

"We weren't talking about you," McGee tried, only to get a raised eyebrow from the teen.

"You suck at lying to anyone below the age of eighteen. Give it up."

McGee's mouth shut suddenly at that, and he scowled a little at Andrew.

"There's no need for that tone," Tony snapped, glaring at Andrew. "We're only having an important conversation."

"Yeah, a conversation about me that should  _involve_  me," the teen responded. "And considering you're the one person  _against_  me going into the field, I can see why you wouldn't want me here."

"Allowing you to go into the field for something as dangerous as this is a foolish idea," Ziva interjected sharply, her gaze not wavering when Andrew turned his glare onto her. "And Tony is not the only one against you going in with us. I am also against it, but you are the only one who will know how to get us in there with some semblance of an idea as to where Alex could be."

"There's a way of getting his directions without having to endanger him too much," Lisa piped up, inserting herself into a conversation she hadn't really been part of before. When all heads turned towards her, she bit her lip, suddenly looking nervous. "I mean, it's up to you whether you take it… but I have a feeling the kid may not like it."

The three younger NCIS field agents shared a glance, before turning to look at Gibbs – the one person who'd opted to stay quiet throughout Andrew's confrontation. The man's steely gaze was focused on Andrew, noticing how the teen had flared up as soon as Harrison had mentioned that he may not like her idea, before turning to the CIA agent.

"What've you got in mind?"

The woman gave a slight smile. "Well, I'm surprised your computer whizz kid over there hasn't come out with it yet…"

* * *

Alex's brows furrowed as he twisted his wrists, ignoring the burning sensation he felt from the ties digging into his wrists and scratching at his skin. Even though there was no chance of him actually getting out of the room, he knew he would feel at least a little more comforted if he had his arms and legs free and could at least move a little to try and find a mode of escaping. Straightening his hands out as much as he could, he couldn't help the grin of relief he gave when he felt the tie slipping down his wrist and closer to his hand. If he could just get it a little further…

The teen winced when he felt a click in his wrist, and took a deep breath.  _Please don't be dislocated, please don't be dislocated, please don't be dislocated…_

Ignoring the slight pain from the click, he continued to try and pull his hand out, attempting to narrow it so that it fit through the gap formed between his wrist and the tie. Part of him knew that by clenching the muscles in his palm together he wasn't exactly making it easier for his hand to fit through, but it was better than making a fist or just having his hand limp and still too big to fit through, he supposed.

The teen winced again when he finally managed to get down to his knuckles. The harsh scratching against the back of his hand wasn't easy to ignore, but he pushed past it in favour of pulling his hand repeatedly, attempting to wedge it through the gap. He let out a gasp of pain as his hand was finally released, the tie falling off his other hand and into the pooling water with a ' _plop_ '. Bringing his hands to his lap, he grinned.

Maybe Walker still underestimated him after all.


	28. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! I know - another chapter so soon after the previous one! I've been inspired to write more and get this story done alongside my studying, so hopefully you'll get at least one more chapter before the new year! The story has at least another 10 chapter to go, I think, comparing it to the original. So It definitely won't be done by the new year, but I'm still writing!
> 
> Anyway, I hope you've been enjoying so far, guys! Enjoy this upcoming chapter!

"You know what, Harrison, you're right. I don't like this. I hate it."

Andrew sat alone in Gibbs' car, a laptop on his lap and a headset providing him with earphones to hear the others and a microphone to speak. Basically like one of his gaming headsets, which was kind of cool.

Except for the fact that, you know, Andrew was alone in the car whilst all of the agents were making their way up to the warehouse, preparing to get Alex out. Which is where he really wanted to be, instead of stuck in that vehicle.

Still, to be fair, at least he wasn't doing  _nothing_  – he was still able to help them out. Each of the agents had what was most probably a button camera on their vests, along with an earphone and a cuff-mic so that they could keep in contact with Andrew as they made their way down. So he could at least keep guiding them down to where he hoped Alex would be.

In response to Andrew's complaint, there was a huff of what the teen assumed to be laughter.

" _I told you he wouldn't_ ," Agent Harrison's voice came through Andrew's headphones, and he could even hear the smirk in her voice.

" _It doesn't matter whether he likes it or not_ ," Gibbs responded sharply, stopping any possible retort that Tony could've come out with (because Andrew knew the man well enough to know he would've said something if given the chance). " _What matters is he's being kept safe. That's it._ "

"It still sucks," Andrew muttered, a scowl on his face.

" _Deal with it_ ," Tony bit back.

"Piss off."

" _Watch your mouth_ ," Ziva reprimanded.

Andrew scoffed. "Please. You guys say worse things when you think Jessie and I aren't listening."

" _Are we going to get back to the reason why we're actually here, or…?_ " McGee quietly asked, though it seemed as if no one heard him, if the fact that Tony and Andrew continued to bicker was any indication.

" _Worse things?!_ "

"Yeah, worse things!"

" _Give me one example of something worse that I've said!_ "

"I would, but I don't exactly want to talk about yours and Ziva's—"

" _Hey!_ " Gibbs' voice was sharp, cutting the argument short with a piercing silence. " _Thank you!_ "

" _You guys bicker like children,_ " Harrison teased lightly. It didn't take a genius to realise that that comment would've most definitely set Tony and Andrew off again.

" _Agent Harrison, may I remind you that this case is currently within NCIS jurisdiction, and so there is no requirement for your presence?_ " Gibbs asked coldly, causing Andrew to shudder at the tone. The lack of response from the CIA agent was enough to indicate that she'd understood the threat loud and clear.

The CIA Agent's plan seemed fairly simple – the agents entering the building would be in two groups, both of them in contact with each other and Andrew. They would all head into the warehouse together before splitting up underground to find Alex, Andrew leading them in the directions he could remember from his stay. And the teen would be relaying instructions to them from his place in the car, a laptop on his lap so he could watch the agents' progress through small cameras attached to their Kevlar vests.

Theoretically, the plan was sound. Enough agents to go in and recover Alex, and Andrew was going to be kept out of danger.

In practice, Andrew was wary of it, but considering the position he'd put himself in at that point in time, he didn't trust his voiced opinions to be taken well. So he kept silent as the plans were spoken over again.

" _McGee, you'll be with Tony and Ziva. I'll be with Harrison._ "

" _You sure that's okay, boss? She's tried to best us before._ "

There was a moment of hesitation, where Andrew just knew that Gibbs was sending the woman a warning glare about any misbehaviours she would pull down there.

" _I can handle her. You know what to do when you've got Alex?_ "

" _Get him out first. That's the priority._ "

" _If you aren't one of the people to find Alex, I'd suggest making some arrests and taking some data._ "

"You say that like they're too stupid to think of that themselves," Andrew quipped, not caring whether he'd just insulted Agent Harrison with his statement. The snort he heard from Tony only confirmed that there was an irritated expression on the woman's face right then.

" _Andrew,_ " Gibbs warned, " _focus. We need you keeping an eye on those feeds._ "

"Yes, sir," Andrew responded as his eyes began to focus on the laptop screen in front of him. The screen was split so the two feeds were showing – one from Tony, and one that had to be from Gibbs. Obviously, the teen understood why not everyone could wear one of the cameras, but he knew for a fact that it would be a whole lot more useful if he could see where everyone was headed.

But  _Agent Harrison_  said they only needed  _two_.

The teen was trying so hard not to be suspicious about it, but he had a feeling that Gibbs was just as suspicious about it but was a whole lot better about hiding it.

" _You ready?_ "

The teen took a deep breath, his fingers beginning to tingle with excitement. This was it they were going in.

_We're coming for you, Alex._

* * *

Alex grit his teeth tightly as he pushed himself to his feet. He'd finally managed to release his ties – they were far too easy to remove (did Walker really underestimate him  _that_  much?) – but he didn't know what to do next. What was the next step? He could hear the steady trickle as water poured in from a vent in the top far corner of the room – just like the vent he and Andrew had escaped from earlier that day. For some reason… it felt like it had been more than a day since they'd attempted their escape.

The water had most definitely ruined his shoes by now. He could hear the squelch as he moved through the water, and the water level was just above his toes now. Pretty soon, he was sure it would reach his ankles, and then he'd have to start properly wading, then swimming. And from the fact that he was struggling to walk, he could tell it wouldn't take long before he'd be drowning.

Fun.

Shuffling towards the door, he braced his hands against it to steady himself as his eyes scanned the edges, looking for some sort of weakness in the structure. He knew that these rooms were built to keep things out… but were they really that good at keeping things in?

He supposed they had to be. "Sealed for both sides…" he muttered to himself. "Damn." He shuffled away from the door, his eyes scanning the room for another route of escape, as he thought back to the memory he'd recalled earlier.

_A flash drive… with lists of names on it. That same flash drive, or a copy of it, was found when I was found in Petty Officer Marks' house._

_That flash drive could've been what got him killed._

_Or was it?_

From what Alex could recall, that flash drive had two lists on it. One of those was a list of all the defected agents within the CIA – a list of every individual who had turned from the CIA to SCORPIA without any of the higher ups in the federal agency knowing. Individuals who had either come into contact with the criminal agency on missions or had been approached by members of SCORPIA with an ultimatum, Alex was guessing.

That list would've very easily become a hit list in the CIA's hands, which would explain why Walker was so desperate to get it back – especially if his own name was on it.

But that other list? Alex wracked his brain for what the other list could be, for why Walker could possibly want that…

_Oh._

Alex's mind found an answer as soon as he realised that there was a small crack on one of the walls. The building was old – it had solid foundations, and even more solid protections against elements such as water in case of flooding. But it didn't have protection against general wear and tear, or the kinds of things that came to be over time. Memories from GCSE Geography flashed to mind about how things expand and contract in heat and cold respectively. A building like this wouldn't have solid insulation in the winter, nor would it stay cool in the summer. Any heat or cold would travel straight through the building and into its walls.

Maybe one of the walls would be weak enough to crack through.

Not to escape, of course, but to slow down the rise of the water or even drain it out of the room.

Glancing from the crack to the door, he smiled. It was the same wall the door was set into. Which meant the wall backed onto the corridor. Perfect.

If he was going to try and prove he could survive against Walker, he might as well be a little ass about it.

Shuffling over to the chair in the middle of the room, he looked over it until he found what he was searching for.

The legs were screwed in.

Sitting in the slowly rising pool of water and setting the chair on its side, he began to work.

* * *

Tony undoubtedly felt nervous as he fidgeted with his earpiece, trying to push it more comfortably into his ear. This was the second time he'd faced this building head on, and he was getting the feeling that there would never be a time where he'd visit this building peacefully. Not that there was really anything to do if he  _was_  to visit this building but… well, maybe he'd just prefer  _not_  to visit this building at all. The structure itself gave him bad vibes.

"Are you sure you are ready to go in?"

Ziva's voice cut through his haze of nerves, and he looked over at her to see her eyes narrowed, scrutinising him. He couldn't help the slight smile that appeared on his face when he realised that she was actually worried for him.

Andrew would never let him live it down if he saw this.

"Whether I'm ready or not, I guess we'll have to go, huh?" he pointed out, pulling out his gun and checking it was loaded one more time before tucking it back into its holster. "Alex needs us. We're putting him before us."

"That does not mean enter recklessly without making sure you are fully prepared for what is to come," the woman pointed out with a frown. "You must think things through as you move."

"This is a hostage saving mission."

"Against a member of a once ruthless criminal agency that was brought down by the exact hostage they have in their grasp. The only reason they are keeping him alive is because of something we have in our possession."

"Which is weird, because it's not even the original." Agent Harrison burst in on their conversation, slight confusion on her own features. When she was met with two identical looks of irritation, she decided to continue as if she'd been invited to join their chat and hadn't just joined in uninvited. "The original flash drive is hidden in one of the CIA's safehouses. Marks made a copy of it so that he could keep it safe in case the other one got lost or destroyed for some reason. The original would be the best one to seek out, ideally, because there's more than one individual in the CIA who knows where it is."

"Are those people alive or dead?" Tony asked.

"Alive… I think."

"There is a chance that they would have been killed through contact with SCORPIA also," Ziva pointed out. "We can not be certain that their lives were spared. In fact, there would be heightened reason for killing them, would there not?"

Before the CIA agent could respond, Gibbs spoke over them all, his eyes cold and focused.

"We're going in. Stay close."

The five federal agents slowly began to make their way towards the compound, keeping low as they reached the metal fencing that surrounded the property. Moving to the front of the group, Ziva's eyes scanned the land outside the warehouse for any signs of guards or lookouts.

"It appears as if there are no individuals outside…" she murmured uncertainly, glancing back at Gibbs. The man's expression was icy as he glanced around, his eyes confirming Ziva's statement.

"Could they be expecting us…?" McGee asked lowly, a deep frown on his face. As far as he knew, none of them had connections to the people inside the warehouse, apart from…

"No one in that warehouse has been contacted," Agent Harrison states stiffly, glaring at McGee when she realised his eyes were on her. "Don't accuse me. I haven't contacted my brother in years, and the first thing I want to do to him is shoot him for being an asshat and turning assassin."

"Yeah, because that totally convinces us that you're on our side," McGee muttered as he turned back to face the compound.

"This is not the time for Tony-level sarcasm," Ziva scolded, only glaring at Tony when he scoffed indignantly. "We have a child to save."

"Then let's move in," Gibbs commanded, moving towards the gate into the compound. The five younger agents followed after him, each of them keeping their guns up and watching the areas around them as Gibbs led them forwards, towards the building. It didn't take them long before they reached the door to the building, without issue.

"This is really creeping me out," McGee muttered as they began to open the door to the warehouse, his eyes still on watch for any ambushes. "Didn't Andrew say he and Alex got chased and captured out here? Why aren't there any guards waiting for us to fight for Alex?"

"Stop complaining, McGoo – it just makes it easier for us to get in," Tony grumbled.

"Or they could just be waiting for us to ambush inside," Harrison pointed out, earning a glare from DiNozzo. "What? It's true."

"McGee has a point," Ziva responded. "We must take into account the fact that they know Andrew has escaped. They would be expecting us."

"Which means they could be preparing for us," Gibbs put in, before pulling the door open. "There's only one way to find out."

The four younger agents shared a look, before glancing at the open door.

There was definitely no turning back now.

* * *

Watching the feeds, Walker had to smile when he noticed the back door to the warehouse was being opened, the only indication being a light filtering through the gap and lighting up a rectangle of concrete flooring. "See, Dom? What did I tell you? They're coming for us."

Dominic Harrison just kept his eyes focused on the screen, only partially realising that Walker had actually said something to him. All he was waiting for was some indication, for some  _sign_ , that what he'd been told had been wrong. That there was no one from his past after him, and he was safe and unknown in this world again. He couldn't go on the run like the other agents – not when he'd fought so hard to keep his identity a secret and wipe it from SCORPIA's databases when they were destroyed.

His heart plummeted when he saw the familiar mop of fair hair – shorter than he remembered, but it was definitely there.

" _Shit_ ," he hissed, forcing Walker to look over at him sharply.

"What?" the other man asked, a frown on his face.

Harrison pointed to the individual on the screen, who was looking around, gun up and prepared for any sort of fight that could come their way. "CIA Agent Lisa Harrison."

"Harri—" Walker's eyes bugged out. "That means—"

"They know I'm here with you." Dominic's eyes hardened. "The CIA are onto us."

Walker stared at Dominic for a few seconds, before a slow grin spread on his face. "Well, I guess that just means we'll have to wipe them out, doesn't it?"


	29. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! I have good news and bad news: good news is that I've had a lot of writing inspiration recently! So I've managed to write a lot more in a shorter amount of time, which is great for you guys! Bad news: I have exams in, like, 2 weeks, so I can't be writing that much anymore. I really need to revise. Luckily, I've got some chapters written in advance so I may be able to post again during my exam period, but even that's debatable. Either way, I've got more writing available for you guys that I'll post up when I can!

" _Clear._ "

" _Clear._ "

" _All clear here._ "

The voices popped through the microphones into Andrew's headset as he watched them assess any and all hiding spaces in that warehouse. There were still as many boxes there as there were last time – maybe even more – with ample dark spaces providing the perfect cover for an ambush if Walker had planned one.

Yet, the agents had found nothing. Heck, not even evidence of another individual using the warehouse. There were no scuff marks, no materials… nothing new that was out of the ordinary.

Andrew let out a slow sigh, trying to reign in his frustration. He knew where to go. He knew how to get down to the basement level of the warehouse. He knew which way they were supposed to go. But they were just  _taking their time doing it_  and it was frustrating him to no end.

" _There's nothing suspicious in here…_ " came Harrison's voice over the comms. " _It's as if this place was never even used…_ "

"That's definitely the place," Andrew urged. "Trust me."

" _Chill, kid. I'm not doubting you._ "

"It sounds like you are…"

" _Andrew, where's the door?_ " Gibbs cut in before the teen went off on one. Through Tony's camera, Andrew could see the older man looking around for the door he'd been speaking about earlier.

"It's near the door you entered through," Andrew explained, pushing his mic closer to his mouth so that the agents could hear him. "Just by that door is another one. There's no window in it, and I think it used to be chained shut or something. Now there's just a bolt."

As he watched, both cameras turned towards the entrance door, and Andrew could see the other door stood right beside it, no chains but deadbolt in place. "There. That's it. That's the door we were taken through."

" _You sure?_ "

"Yeah," Andrew confirmed, sounding more and more certain of himself as he spoke on. "It should lead to a staircase that leads you down to the basement level. That I definitely remember."

On one of the cameras, he noticed Agent Harrison take on a steely expression. " _Then let's go._ "

"The staircase is kinda dark, though, so watch out for that."

" _Thanks for the heads up,_ " Tony quipped as the group began to move towards the door. When they reached it, Gibbs was the first to grip the handle, taking on the duty of pulling the door open whilst the others kept an eye out for any threats from the staircase or unexpectedly from the warehouse floor. Appearing to hug on it a couple of times, the older agent nodded, and Ziva and McGee responded by pointing towards the door with their guns up as Tony and Harrison continued to scout for any possible dangers.

_Three…_

_Two…_

_One…_

The door creaked open, allowing the agents to see into the dark stairwell. Nothing came out at them, and nothing stood out against the dark background. Reaching into his pocket, Gibbs pulled out a flashlight and shone it down into the darkness.

" _Nothing's coming up._ "

Andrew let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. So Walker wasn't going to ambush them in the staircase – it was clear, and ready for them to descend. Brilliant.

Or, at least, it was brilliant until part of the way down, when the camera feed started flickering in and out.

"Uh, guys…?" Andrew's brows furrowed as he tapped at the laptop screen, despite knowing deep down that that would do nothing to help the situation he was in right then. "Guys, can you hear me…?"

There was a pause, before, " _Yeah, we can hear you just fine,_ " McGee responded. There was a moment of silence before he asked, " _Is something wrong?_ "

"Yeah, the feed," Andrew responded, still tapping at the screen when he realised he was only receiving static. The video feeds were showing nothing – and that was saying something, considering the agents were descending a dark staircase. "The video feed's gone static. I can't see anything on it."

He could hear the agents stop.

" _Nothing?_ " McGee asked.

"Nothing at all," the teen responded.

Andrew heard a curse hissed through the comms, before Agent Harrison decided to speak up.

" _Walker must be using something to jam the video signals,_ " she concluded with a sigh. " _We can't get anything out to him._ "

" _But how are our mics and earpieces still working?_ " Tony asked. " _Wouldn't they try to jam everything at once?_ "

" _Maybe they can only intercept one frequency at a time,_ " McGee suggested, though he sounded slightly doubtful of that.

Andrew scowled. Why was Walker only letting them hear, but not letting him see? This was… pretty weird. It didn't make sense for him to do something like that, did it?

Or maybe it did.

"He doesn't want me directing you," Andrew breathed, his eyes wide. "He wants you to go in alone so I can't warn you of a trap or if there's something out of place."

The agents went silent at that realisation. If their only lead, their only map, was destroyed or made unavailable, then there was a definite chance that they'd end up wandering aimlessly through the basement of that compound as they searched for Alex, not having Andrew's guidance as to where to go exactly. For all they knew, the basement could be a maze.

" _We have no choice,_ " Gibbs finally spoke up, causing Andrew's heart to plummet. As much as he loved Gibbs for his bravery and sense of justice, and as much as he wanted Alex out of there and safe… this was a sure-fire way of getting someone killed.

Walker knew that basement like the back of his hand. The agents didn't.

Andrew could only purse his lips, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Then he realised something.

He wasn't completely useless. He was in Gibbs' car.

And Gibbs kept a spare gun in the glovebox.

"Good luck," he told the agents. "I'll be listening, but I guess I can't help much. Sorry."

" _You did your best, Andrew. Don't worry about it._ "

_As if I've done my best,_  Andrew thought to himself as he eyed the glove compartment by the passenger seat. A look of determination overcame his features as he began to move about in the car.

They were going to save Alex. And he sure as hell was going to make sure he helped.

* * *

Alex braced his hand against the wall as he breathed, lessening the weight on his bad leg, with a chair leg gripped in his free hand.

It had taken him slightly longer than he'd hoped, but he'd managed to unscrew one of the chair legs from the seat itself. The design itself was such that the legs themselves had screws in them, which meant that they only needed to be screwed into the seat of the chair. A simple, efficient design.

And now it was a useful design.

Gripping the chair leg tightly, Alex braced himself against the wall before slamming the sharp end of the leg against the crack, like a pick. He scowled when nothing happened, and tried again… and again… and again. Getting frustrated when he didn't see much, if any, progress, the teen began to slam harder against the crack, digging the screw in and hoping to create a bigger opening.

He almost cried with relief when he heard a chunk of the brick free itself from the wall and fall into the water below. Some progress was being made – it wasn't huge, but it was better than nothing.

This little progress was the push he needed.

Going at it again, Alex continued to hack at the wall as the crack slowly grew in size. All the while, he could feel the water level slowly rising at his feet – he'd long since removed his ruined shoes and socks and was moving around carefully on bare feet, hoping nothing could injure him any more than he already was. Shifting his feet to avoid the small chunks and grit as they fell into the water, he kept at it, switching hands partway through when he felt a cramp coming on.

He wasn't surprised when he suddenly heard a sharp  _clink_ , and looked down to see the screw of the chair leg had broken off. He sighed.

_Guess I have to go for another chair leg, then._

He slowly shuffled towards what remained of the chair, getting to his knees to begin unscrewing another leg to use. And in the back of his mind, all he could hope was that someone,  _anyone_ , would be coming to save him soon.

* * *

Navigating a dark staircase was not fun – something that Tony managed to conclude not even two steps into their journey down into the basement of the warehouse. It was easy to trip, you didn't know how far you were falling, and nine times out of ten a dark staircase meant old, concrete stairs that would definitely hurt and possibly break a bone.

Still, he resisted the urge to make any comments as they headed down, guided by Gibbs' torch. As much as he wanted to lighten the situation, this didn't feel like a situation that was meant to be lightened. The situation felt too dark, too serious to make a joke about. Plus, Alex's situation weighed too heavily on his mind. What if they were too late when they got there? What if Alex was damaged beyond repair? What if Alex was no longer there, and this whole rescue mission was for nothing?

He was startled out of his thoughts when he felt a presence beside him.

"We will find him," Ziva murmured lowly, and Tony knew that if he could see her right then, she'd have a determined look on her face.

"You're sure about that?" he responded just as quietly.

"I am certain of it."

"What makes you so sure?" Harrison asked from where she was moving behind Gibbs. Whilst Gibbs headed up the group, followed by Harrison, Ziva and Tony had been left to bring up the rear, with McGee in the middle.

Tony narrowed his eyes at that, even though he knew Harrison wouldn't be able to see his annoyed expression. "What makes you so doubtful?" he countered.

"I am sure because it would make no sense for there to be any reason to get rid of him now," Ziva answered stiffly. "Why would Andrew run free, only for Alex to be killed? Alex would not have given up the information in the time it has taken to retrieve Andrew and return here. And it would be too much hassle to find a new place to move Alex, considering we already have tabs on their vehicle and this place as well. Alex is still here, and we will find him."

Everyone was quiet as they continued to move down the stairwell, taking in what Ziva had pointed out.

Even Tony had to admit, she made a good point. It would be stupid of them to move Alex now, when Andrew was found so close by and they had eyes on the warehouse. Their only hope was to get as much information out of Alex as they could here – and the likelihood of them getting what they needed from Alex if they hadn't managed to obtain it yet was pretty low.

Tony's more positive train of thought drew to a close as dim lighting lit up the bottom of the staircase, and the group reached a solid door that was slightly ajar – the source of the light.

Gibbs switched off his torch as he approached the door, placing his hand on it to gently test its strength. His gun immediately came up when the door easily slid open, revealing the poorly lit basement corridor beyond. The five agents stood still for a few moments, waiting as the door continued to creak open. It was when the door stopped moving that they began to move through, Gibbs going first and scanning the area for possible threats. The four younger agents followed him through one by one, until they were all stood in the corridor in a huddle.

The poorly lit corridor was long, lined on both sides by doors, but it didn't take a genius to realise that this wasn't the entire basement of the warehouse. This may have been the closest area to the stairs, but Tony could see that there was a bend in the corridor up ahead.

"The three of you, begin searching here," Gibbs ordered, pocketing his torch before looking over at Tony, McGee and Ziva. "Harrison and I will head further in. Alert us on the comms if you find anything."

McGee was the first to nod. "Yes, boss." The other two gave their own nods as Agent Harrison pursed her lips, taking in a deep breath through her nose.

Gibbs sent a glance at Agent Harrison. "Let's go."

* * *

Andrew took a deep breath as he knelt by the car, before popping his head up to peer over it.

It had been pretty easy to hook up a mic and an earpiece to the frequency they were using – McGee had left a whole box of that stuff in the trunk of the car, and he'd made the mistake of letting Andrew watch as he set up everything for everyone. So now Andrew could listen to and speak to the agents without being stuck in the car.

Getting his hands on a gun, on the other hand, had proven a bit more difficult. Gibbs' spare had been hidden right underneath everything else, at the back of the glovebox, and the gun didn't have any ammunition in it. So Andrew had had to look for the spare magazines in the trunk and ensure they were the correct bullet size before loading them into the gun to use. Just before he shut the trunk, he pulled out a holster, attaching it to his pants and holstering the gun.

After this, Andrew was faced with the dilemma of making sure everything in the car was safe. Even though this was an industrial area, he could easily tell that anyone in this area walking around those parts was going to be pretty dodgy. So he had to make sure that the car was locked up and everything put away. If Gibbs found out he got out of the car but left a whole of government equipment free for anyone to take, he would be dead before he could start begging for forgiveness.

Checking his back pocket, Andrew made sure the car keys were in there before looking back over at the warehouse. As the others had said, it appeared pretty empty. There were no guards walking about, and Andrew hadn't seen anyone enter the warehouse since the agents had gone in either.

Eyes scanning the grounds, he was rethinking his decision to follow the agents and head in there when he heard a large vehicle approaching. He frowned.

Did many companies use warehouses in this area?

Looking in the direction of the sound, he was startled when he realised a large black van was headed towards the warehouse – unmarked with no number plate.

Suspicious? Definitely.

Andrew watched the vehicle as it pulled up in front of the warehouse, and the back opened, allowing about a dozen or so men to emerge.

About a dozen or so men dressed in the same way the security guards had earlier.

That's when he realised that these  _were_  the security guards from earlier. Amongst the small crowd, Andrew could see the three men they'd knocked out earlier – one with a cut surrounded by a bruise on his forehead, and two with almost buckle-shaped bruises on their temples. The teen smirked. It was nice to know that he and Alex had caused  _some_  damage in their attempted escape. Well,  _Alex's_  attempted escape –  _his_  actual escape.

Making up his mind, Andrew waited behind the car until all of the guards, including the driver, had left the vehicle and made their way into the compound before making his move. He tiptoed out from behind the car, making his way over to where the van stood and pressing himself against it. He waited for a few moments to see if anyone would be walking by, before shuffling slowly towards the back of the van and peeking around the edge.

The guards seemed to be filing straight towards the warehouse building. Not moving around in the yard, observing the area for threats or standing guard as they usually did, but heading straight into the warehouse. One by one.

That set off serious alarm bells in Andrew's head.

Why were they going straight inside…?

Unless Walker already knew they were there, and he was sending in the guards to take the agents out.

Andrew rushed to speak into his mic, his eyes wide with worry. "Gibbs! Gibbs, can you hear me?"

There was a crackle, before the older man finally responded. " _Andrew? What's wrong?_ "

"It's the guards," the teen rushed, leaning heavily on the van. "The guards, they're here! At the compound!"

There was a pause on the other line, but when a response came it was Tony who replied.

" _Andrew, there's no one down here but us and hopefully Alex._ "

"They won't be down there yet! They just arrived!"

" _How do you know they're even here, Andrew?_ " came McGee's voice through the earpiece. " _You're meant to be sat in the car._ "

"I can  _see_  them!" the teen insisted, almost growling at the agents' apparent lack of urgency. "You've got to trust me on this! They just entered the warehouse! They're either descending the stairs or staking out the warehouse waiting for you!"

There seemed to be a pause as all the agents took this in, and it was in this moment that Andrew decided to make his move. Popping his head around the back of the van again, he realised all the guards had disappeared into the warehouse, and rounded the vehicle. Within moments, he'd passed through the gate and was sprinting through the open yard towards the warehouse. Inwardly, he hoped to God that no one spotted him as he ran, because he was at a great disadvantage if someone  _did_  see him. Skidding to a stop, he put his hands out to brace himself against the wall of the building, wincing as his hands slapped against the harsh wall before he twisted and allowed his back to take on the rest of his momentum. Breathing heavily, he attempted to calm down enough to register what was going on, and that was when he realised that he was being spoken to through the earpiece.

"… _ndrew! Andrew! Make sure you stay in the car! Stay in the car!_ "

The teen rolled his eyes at Gibbs' instructions, before tiptoeing over to the door to the warehouse.

" _Why do I get the feeling he's already out of the car…?_ " Tony muttered over the comms.

" _Because he is you, and you would do the same stupid thing,_ " Ziva responded without hesitation.

Andrew smirked as he braced his hand against the door handle, getting prepared to enter the warehouse. "You've got that right," he muttered quietly, before pushing open the door and getting ready to find Alex and get the heck out of there.


	30. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another prewritten chapter up for you guys! Enjoy!

Alex knew he was beginning to tire. His arms ached, his shoulders ached, his leg was killing him, and the water level had passed his ankles. He was all ready to just sit in the water and let fate take him, but he had to keep trying. He felt like he was so close.

Then he heard the knocking at the door.

* * *

"McGee, take the left. I'll take the right. Ziva, keep an eye out for guards."

The trio of agents were making their way slowly down the corridor, testing every door to see whether Alex was behind it. Granted, it was slow working, particularly because they had to not only knock on each door, but open each one to make sure Alex wasn't just lying inside the room unconscious. The doors were heavy, and it was exhausting.

They were almost halfway down the corridor when McGee hesitated at an open door, his eyes wide. "Uh, guys? I think I've found something."

Before Ziva could turn to see what was going on, Tony approached McGee. "Don't turn around, Zi. Keep an eye out for us."

The woman gave a huff of frustration, but did as she was told as Tony went to see what McGee had found.

"What've you got, McGee?"

McGee pointed to a spot in the top far corner of the room, where the vents for most of the rooms seemed to be. The only difference was, this vent had no cover – or, at least, the cover for the vent wasn't screwed on. Instead, Tony spotted it lying on the ground, the screws scattered around it.

Tony's eyebrows rose at that. "An escape route...?"

"One that must've already been used," McGee confirmed as he walked into the room, looking around. "There are breadcrumbs on the floor, as if someone was fed here."

"This must've been the cell the boys were originally kept in," Tony deduced, his eyes scanning the room. Small, dark and cold, with nothing but concrete and bricks on all six sides.

He was just about ready to flip his shit.

"At least they escaped," McGee pointed out, pulling Tony out of his thoughts.

"Alex got recaptured," Tony responded simply, before turning to head out of the room. "Keep looking. That clearly isn't the room he's in now."

McGee just stared after Tony, concern on his features. "We'll find him, Tony," he called out.

Tony hesitated, his steps faltering. He didn't look back at McGee before responding, "It's not the finding him that I'm worrying about."

"We will find him  _alive_ ," Ziva amended, glancing over her shoulder towards the two male agents.

Tony glanced over at her, and for a moment she caught a glimpse of the concern in his eyes, before he turned to start focusing on the doors. "Let's get a move on and find him before it's too late."

* * *

Andrew practically held his breath as he hid behind a pile of crates, waiting for the guards to pass.

As soon as he'd made his way into the warehouse, he'd been faced with the dilemma of getting down into the basement without getting caught. It appeared as if all the guards were just lounging about in the warehouse itself, most likely waiting for instructions from Walker on what to do with the agents downstairs, which meant that Andrew had more than enough time to get down there, warn them, and find Alex so that they could escape. That was the good news.

The bad news was that the only method of getting to the door down to the basement was clearly visible from every area of the room, not to mention the door had been heavy enough for Gibbs. There was no way he could get down there without alerting everyone to his presence and drawing trouble straight off the bat. If he was going to help find Alex, he had to be discrete. Walker couldn't know that he was back there, helping to find Alex. If he did, then he knew damn well that he could and would be used as bait for the other boy, and Alex had already given up his safety once before to make sure Andrew was safe. What would he sacrifice next time for the boy?

Eyes scanning the room, Andrew tried to find something that could distract the guards long enough for him to sprint over to the door, open it, and sneak down the dark stairwell. But there didn't seem to be anything distracting enough to cause the commotion he needed, nor was there anything that would make a loud enough noise to cover up him opening that door and shutting it behind him. All he could see was crates.

Wait a second...

" _How good is your pitching arm?"_

Andrew looked down at his feet. Despite being fairly new sneakers, Andrew's shoes were ruined. There was no way he could get them anywhere close to their original pristine condition. He wouldn't miss them a single bit.

The real question was, was he prepared to run around this place in socks?

Weighing up his options, Andrew realised he had no choice if he wanted to save Alex.

Pulling off one shoe, he looked around for a perfect target, before pitching it as hard and as far as he could.

The resulting crash was perfect cover.

The domino effect it caused made Andrew realise his distraction actually couldn't have gone any better.

At least, that was what he was thinking as he watched the guards all race towards the source of the commotion, smirking to himself, before turning and running slightly awkwardly (he only had one shoe on) towards the door. Grunting, he pulled it open just wide enough for him to slide through the opening created, and he plunged into darkness.

That was when he realised he should have at least brought a torch.

Sighing, he slide a foot forward slowly until it reached the edge of a stair, before bringing his other foot to step down. Repeating this was slow progress, but he knew it was the only way for him to get down the stairs without falling and injuring himself. Hand placed firmly on the wall, Andrew continued this as he descended the stairs slowly, before he finally reached an area of the stairwell that was slightly lighter than the rest.

He smiled with relief. He'd reached the bottom.

Moving carefully, the teen made his way down the remaining stairs before slowly pushing open, only to be stopped by a familiar commanding voice.

"Stop right there, or I will shoot!"

Andrew gulped. Hearing Ziva threaten someone was one thing, but being on the receiving end of it was completely different.

He hesitated, waiting for her to say something else. When she didn't, he pushed at the door again.

"I said stop!"

"It's me!" he called out feebly, pushing his hand through the gap and giving a small wave. "It's me, I swear!"

There were a few moments of silence, before the long anticipated screech of, " _Andrew!_ " reached his ears, and he winced.

She didn't sound happy at all.

Pushing the door open more fully, he stepped out into the basement corridor, gulping as he was faced with the furious glare of Ziva and her gun as the two men (wisely) focused on trying to find Alex.

"You are  _down_  here when you were told to  _stay in the car?!_ " she exclaimed, making the teen wince. Instead of giving him a chance to answer, she focused her gun more surely on him, her thumb hovering over the safety switch of her gun. "Give me one good reason why I should not shoot you here right now!"

"Because I can help you save Alex!" Andrew blurted out quickly, putting his hands up in surrender. "I'm the only one who's faced Walker here before, and I could really help!" When the doubtful expression remained on Ziva's face, Andrew decided to take a different approach. "If you kill me, Gibbs will kill you!"

"That's assuming he doesn't kill you first," McGee called back, making Andrew glare in his direction.

"Shut up!"

"He's already down here," Tony called back. "We might as well let him help."

Ziva continued to pin her glare on Andrew, her grip on her gun tightening, before she slowly lowered the weapon.

Andrew let out a breath of relief. "Thanks."

"This is not for your benefit."

"I'm still thanking you." Before he could start off an argument with Ziva, Andrew decided to try and explain what he'd seen up in the warehouse. "There are about twelve guards waiting up there. I don't know whether they're coming downstairs or not, but it's like they're waiting for instructions before they move," he explained as he closed the stairwell door behind him. Hey, if they wanted to protect themselves from guards, he at least had to make it easier to hear them approaching.

Ziva's eyebrows rose. "Waiting for instructions?" she repeated.

The teen nodded as he approached her. "Yeah. Which means it's not just random that they're here."

"Walker knows."

"Yeah." Andrew glanced towards the two male agents. "Have you managed to find Alex yet? Or at least get a clue on where he could be?"

"Nope," Tony replied stiffly, before going straight back to knocking on doors and clearing rooms. McGee spared a glance back at Andrew.

"We haven't found much. We've found the room you guys were kept in when you escaped, but..." the man trailed off.

Andrew pursed his lips at that. "They wouldn't keep him in the same room," he concluded. "Even though he's injured, that room provides an escape route. Walker wouldn't risk it with him."

"You think we haven't figured that out, genius?" Tony snapped.

McGee glared at him. "Hey, look, we know you're worried, but don't take it out on him."

"Alex is just a kid. And he's missing." Tony glared at Andrew. "And  _you're_  just a kid. You shouldn't be down here! You should be at home, or in hospital, or  _in the car_."

"I'm here because I can help you find Alex," Andrew responded stubbornly.

"How can you help us find him when we now have to think about protecting you too?"

"I can protect myself. I have a—"

Andrew stopped short, his brows deeply furrowed.  _Hang on a moment..._

Tony's eyebrow rose in expectation. "You have a...?"

Andrew put his finger to his lips, shushing the man.

"What the—?"

Andrew shushed him again, seemingly focusing on something as he walked along the corridor. He slowly walked past Tony and McGee, ignoring the incredulous looks they were giving him, as his eyes stared at the ground whilst he walked. Not long after he passed them, he turned to face them, eyes wide.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked slowly.

"Do you hear that?" Andrew asked lowly.

"Hear wh—?"

This time, it was Ziva who shushed Tony, approaching from her position further down the corridor. She was quiet, focusing on the sound Andrew was talking about.

_Clunk._

_Clunk._

_Clunk._

"That sounds like... someone hitting a wall...?" McGee asked slowly, looking thoroughly confused.

Tony appeared just as confused. "But why would someone be hitting a—?" His question stopped short as realisation dawned on all of their faces.

"Find the source of that sound!" Andrew urged as he put his ear to the nearest wall, listening out as he progressed down the corridor. The two male agents did the same, whilst Ziva kept her eyes on the stairwell door.

It was McGee who found himself placing his ear against the wall the knocks were coming from.

"It's here!"

Tony looked between the doors on either side of the spot McGee was gesturing to. The spot on the wall was right in the middle. "Right, we'll have to—"

"It's that one," Andrew cut Tony off, pointing to the door further down the corridor. "The way the rooms are built, it's gotta be."

Tony didn't even question before he moved to knock on the door.

* * *

Alex stopped digging against the crack when he heard the knock on the cell door, and his eyes widened. What on earth? He thought Walker had left him to die...

" _Federal Agents! Anyone in there?_ "

Alex's jaw dropped, then a smile grew on his face. He recognised that voice.

"Hey!" he called back, dropping the chair leg and wading slowly towards the door. "Hey! Help! It's me!" He used the wall to hold himself up as he hobbled. "Help!"

There was a brief,  _very brief_ , pause before the voice was back at the door. By this point, Alex was leaning on the door, waiting eagerly for it to be opened.

" _Alex? Alex! Oh thank God!_ "

Alex smiled with relief, still leaning heavily on the door. Andrew had done it. He'd gotten help.

" _Alex! We're gonna get you outta there!_ " came another voice, which made Alex's eyes bug out.

" _Andrew_?!" he nearly screeched. He thought the boy would've stayed safe and not returned – but he was on the other side of that door.

" _Yeah, it's me!_ "

"Why are you here! You should be somewhere safe!"

" _I wasn't going to leave you here alone, Alex. I... I had to help..._ "

Alex almost felt like crying. Andrew had... wanted to save him? He'd wanted to come back for Alex, even if it put him in danger?

That was stupid. Endearing, he supposed, but stupid.

" _Alright, Alex, back away from the door,_ " came McGee's voice. " _I'm gonna try and open it, okay?_ "

Alex stumbled back a little, before his eyes widened. Wait a second...

"Hang on! The room's flooded!" Alex called out, looking at the rising water level around his feet. Or, rather, his calves. "If you push it open, water will rush out!"

There wasn't even a pause before Tony replied, " _We're opening the door anyway, Alex! Back away!_ "

Alex stood back, watching the door intently. It felt like he was waiting an age before the door finally creaked open, though that soon became a wide opening as the water rushed out of the gap and into the corridor. Alex, being weak on his legs, was swept out along with the small flood, falling right into someone's arms.

It only took him a few moments to realise that he had been oh-so-gracefully caught by Tony, who was grinning down at him.

"You alright there?" he asked, watching as the boy stared up at him before pushing himself off Tony and steady himself.

"Yeah..." Alex mumbled, before smiling weakly at the agent. "Yeah, I think so...?"

Less than a second later, he felt a pair of arms wrap around his neck, and his eyes widened when he realised he was being hugged by Andrew. He gulped, not knowing what to do.

"A-Andrew...?"

"I almost thought you were dead..." Andrew whispered. "I thought... I thought I'd left you to die..."

Alex was frozen still, but a smile grew on his face and he resisted the urge to burst into tears. He was exhausted, and hungry, and in pain... but Andrew had come back for him. Andrew... cared?

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" That was the only response Alex could muster in his quickly tiring state. What little energy he'd had was quickly draining, and he was tempted to just curl up on the ground and sleep.

A hand landed on both boys' shoulders, causing Andrew to raise his head and look towards the owner. Tony gave both boys a gentle smile.

"This is sweet and all, but you guys  _do_  know we need to get out of here, right?" he prompted. Andrew began to let go of Alex, but the fair haired teen gripped onto Andrew instead, his arms shaking. McGee sent Alex a concerned look.

"You think you can hold out a little longer until we get you out of here?" he asked, noticing how Alex's eyes were slowly dropping shut.

Andrew pursed his lips as he supported Alex. "It's going to take us a while before we get out. There's at least a dozen guards up there, and that's not including more arriving..."

"Last time we escaped through the vents...?" Alex offered.

"I'm not going back into those damn vents."

"We need to figure out a way to get past those guards," Tony muttered.

"Well, what if we made them come to us?" Ziva turned to face the males with a smirk on her face, her gun spinning on her index finger.


End file.
